JOYSTECHTOOL

I am very glad this part of my assignment is over! Creating a rubric for a course you are proposing, but have never taught, is like trying to pour milk into a an eye drop container with a blind fold on your eyes. I have racked my brain trying to come up with a way to measure blogs that have both summative and formative components in them. I think it takes more than one form of assessment to keep students or learners on track throughout a course. It has been quite a challenge for me.

One of the best things I did this week was meeting with a fellow student, one I consider a friend, and spending time with her discussing the course, this week’s module and ‘big ideas.” I value her judgment, because she has taught and has insights far beyond mine. She likes to tell me how accomplished I am; yet, she is actually projecting some of her competencies on me. I respect her opinions and insights; but, I also think often times we are our own worst critics. I wonder if we’re puzzling out just what genius means.

There was nothing particularly challenging about the module this week; until…I hit the part of designing a rubric around an imaginary course. Trying to convey to students what you want them to achieve, by using a rubric is a high level task and to do it right will take a lot of trial and error. It is challenging, frustrating and will probably never really be finished. Nevertheless, I think rubrics should always be improved upon. I am excited about the thought of using rubrics in my on-line course. I have spent a lot of time refining and thinking about what I really want to teach and why.

Assessment is the building block I had hoped would help me build the course I am designing. Now that I have contemplated the rubric and started creating it, I am wondering if it really will help me teach and assess my learners in the ways I hope to do so. I suppose time will answer those questions for me.

This task has helped me understand why Backward Design makes sense. I think the idea was way beyond its time and will serve instructors and teachers for years to come…or until something even better comes along in the world of education. Having to deal with each step of the design is no small task. Doing it in small chunks seems to prove the point Black and Wiliam made when they said testing small chunks of learning within a week helps the learner do the very tasks we are asking of them and helps keep them in their long term memory for a longer period of time. I am not about to forget anything I learned in this course and the others in the certification program.

This video is a  bit long; nevertheless, I highly recommend watching it.

This week was spent studying rubrics. I think I had a pretty good idea how that was going to work. But, I think it will take quite a bit of teaching to really tailor make them for student learning. One of the things I want to measure is the learner’s ability to think critically and analytically about an ill-structured problem. Assessment helps us do this.

There are many similarities between formative and summative assessment. In our readings authors Black and Wiliam (1998) have stated short tests are far more productive than long comprehensive tests at the end of the course. The following ideas of Black and Wiliam were taken from, The Concept of Formative Assessment written by Carol Boston whose paper was based on experts in the field:   

• Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones. 
• New learning should be tested within about a week of first exposure. 
• Be mindful of the quality of test items and work with other teachers and outside sources to collect good ones.

Interestingly, I spent 10 years in the university system of which five were spent as an undergraduate and five as a graduate student. Most of the learning of concepts and “big ideas” were assessed through term finals. It was a horrible way to learn. It took days to go back through all the points and ideas presented in lectures. I did not sleep for three days at a time before finals (without the help of drugs) and crashed for 24 hours after the final was taken.

Since writing, critical thinking and analysis was the main focus of my studies in Political Science, I was groomed from the time I declared a major until the time I left my doctoral studies, to write tomes. These were original pieces on researched hypotheses. My work was torn to pieces by my committees. They were written and re-written for months at a time. Yet, these were the most useful forms of assessment, since I could see the under-developed ideas and where I needed to make changes. Today, however, I would never put students through this rigorous process of formative assessment (however, I will leave that for their editors at some future date). There were no rubrics and there was no way of knowing, besides the tests and the grades on them, whether I was on the right track or not.

I think the only Capstone experience I can think of was my oral tests and final tests and the defense of my papers with my committee members. Today, an on-line portfolio seems like a thing of beauty to me. Not only can the student see their progress weekly by participating in discussions in a variety of Web 2.0 applications and writing their blogs ; but they can use it as a Capstone resume for showcasing their work at the end of their degree and/or for a certification program. Even projects at the end of a course can be Capstone pieces. In the end, the students decide what they want to offer future employers as evidence of their accomplishments.

In thinking about the short-comings of portfolios or Capstone portfolios, I suppose it depends on how well the student learned the necessary and required elements in the course or how good a researcher and writer they are. When I think about on-line portfolios, I tend to see the positive; because each blog is a re-cap of what they have learned or did not learn during the module week. I would require them weekly and doing so would help me assess where they are at.  The perk for the student, is the fact they are handling smaller chunks of information, they can always refer back to if needed. This type of assessment can be both formative and summative. Why, because I would comment on them and let them know what they might have missed, over-looked or just not understood. I particularly like the meta-cognitive blogs we do as part of this course for that reason; it gives us a chance to reflect on our work and how we got to where we are and where we still have to go.

I am giving you an example of my rubric idea. I would modify it for my learners. Since I want them to become excellent researchers and think critically and analytically about current issues, my rubric was taken from the ideas presented by the University of Wisconsin-Stout. I have modified it a bit to fit my thinking and needs.

I met with the instructor Robin this week. She told me I cannot leap tall building in a single bound and bring students with me. Worse yet, she got away without helping me find the “big idea.” What do I mean by all this? Instead of thinking super big, I need to think smaller or at the level of first year students who might not even know how to write a paper much less research a topic like I was proposing. We “dumbed down” a whole lot to get where they were at academically, from her perspective. After my conversation with her [she was play acting the thinking of a new student], I would have sent her to academic success and would have hoped her tutor would get her up to speed. I would like to think high school students, at least, have the ability to write a research paper or a small blog. This left me wondering what the heck they’re teaching these kids in school these days. If a two year old can maneuver an iPad; why can’t a new college student write a 3 page research paper? My answer…oh yes they can!

Secondly, she was stating I should teach as though they had declared sociology as a major. Then I started thinking most students don’t declare a major until their second to third year in college. By the time they have their basic courses down for a general education associates degree; they have decided which discipline fits the direction they want to move in. Maybe she thought I was interested in teaching special needs students. By the time my kids were in second grade, they were at a grade level two or three years ahead of the other students. I think many students today are smarter than their teachers give them credit for. But, she got me thinking and that really was what the meeting was all about. She is really good at that.

The concepts in this assignment were pretty easy to understand. One of the guiding questions was how formative assessment could be used to help us teach expert as opposed to novice behavior or move them toward adaptive as opposed to routine expertise. This was a bit trickier to do and grasp. I think the answer was pretty simple. If you know where they are going and they know where they’re going, with guidance they will get there, if they’re engaged in the process. At the bottom of all this learning is the ability to help them think analytically by posing ill structured problems and then giving them interesting tools to solve these problems with online, even though they will no longer be able to resolve them once and for all with a capital “T” on the truth.

For example, if you watched the video of the 2 year old boy move to the items he really liked in the iPad; you could see this process of formative assessment at work with a digital tool. If a two year old can accomplish what most adults or digital immigrants cannot, these younger adults just entering college are a whole lot smarter than they get credit for. Furthermore, when the 2 year old didn’t want to do something, he just ignored his dad’s promptings. The interesting concept to ponder in all of this is…just how much they are teaching us in their first few years of junior college. My guess is they have changed the way we think about teaching and have told us what they want if we’re going to teach them. The bottom line, they have “potty” trained us in a role reversal sort of way. The next time you try to get your students interested in the subject matter, revisit this thought.

So what is the bottom line this week? Engage them; move them toward the learning goals by letting them know what it takes to get there; help them get there by adapting formative assessment and embedding it into the lesson design; believe they can do it and watch them develop the skills to behave as experts rather than novices. If you have watched children long enough and/or young adults you would be absolutely amazed at what they can do.

I think many of us have watched our parents from the eyes of a precocious child. We have played poker with them, never showing them what we were holding in our hand, while we let them win or at least let them think they were winning. Beware of the little professor that resides in every child, that child can change a whole educational system, graduate and have children of his/her own before you even realize what has happened.

This week we were to learn the basics of assessment. The two most descriptive types of assessment are formative and summative.  The focuses of both types of assessment are on the individual and/or the individual as compared to the group. However, each has a different way of evaluating the learning competencies of the learners.  Summative assessment is the result or the sum of what was learned, not only by the individual but by the group as well. It is a quantifiable measurement or a grade. It involves a test of the knowledge of the learner and usually comes after something was presented to the learner to learn about. While formative assessment, per Dylan Wiliams, is designed into the course and can be viewed as embedded; it provides feedback to move the student forward; it clarifies what the student needs to do to be successful; it motivates students to take an active role in their learning process and moves students to be learning resources for each other, while the big idea keeps learning on track.

For example, we record the practices of our band. By listening to the mistakes made and evaluating what was done right in the practices, I can help the band members discuss and discover what needs to be fixed in order to sound good and improve their up-coming performance. Once I start making suggestions for improvement, everyone gets in on the act. The end product is often determined by the singer. Since it is his/her song that is being reproduced by the band, the final say rests with the singer, based on the advice of the lead guitar player and sometimes the drummer. The rhythm player, the bass player and drummer than adjust their playing to insure the proper beat is produced for the singer, but also for the dancing audience.

While there is no written test given, the final performance before the audience is the test. If our audience is dancing to the songs consistently and filling the dance floor, we know we are doing it right. If we hold our dancers interest and keep them dancing without leaving, we know we’re doing it right. If the club that hired us asks us to come back based on the feedback they receive from their customers, we know we have done it right. My band members know where the mistakes were made, during a performance.  They have all developed an ear for the music.  They are all engaged in the learning process. They fix these errors in the next practice to the best of their ability. That is what our clients pay them to do.

Each of these band members have the innate ability to perform with their voices and instruments. They become more competent each time the cycle of practice and performance repeats itself. By analyzing how the music can be improved, they move from being novices to experts in their trade. Most of my band members have played in area bands for ten to 35 years or more. Because they often move on, either because they expire or join another band, we are constantly adapting our music to new players who are often at very different levels of expertise. We are constantly learning new music and adapting it to the playing abilities of each member.

My role as owner and leader of the band is that of a facilitator. Each member of the band has their own area of expertise so our learning is based upon the group’s ability to create their own interpretation of the music. Each member is a learner and teacher to the other members. Our music and performances are never really perfected, because we are all involved in the learning process as we continue to perform. Perfection is not the goal; but growth as musicians is, individually and as a group.. The end product is entertainment for our customer. We want them to enjoy the music and dance to the beat. We want them to feel the rush! We want just enough money to keep our equipment in good working order and pay our expenses.

The video is an example of summative assessment and/or task.

No matter how I looked at the issues in my course and the content, I could not see the big idea. I spent hours researching the concept. I asked my teammates for help. In the end it took a good night’s sleep. Then it hit me. The real focus was why we need to be informed and participate in our system in order to change policy in Washington and Olympia. We the people…even if we are semi-sovereign as Elmer E. Schattschneider wrote in his book, The semisoverign people must find a way to partcipate:

Abstention reflects the suppression of the options and alternatives that reflect the needs of the nonparticipants. It is not necessarily true that the people with the greatest needs participate in politics most actively. Further, it is an outrage to attribute the failures of American democracy to the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. Only a pedagogue would suppose that the people must pass some kind of examination to qualify for participation in a democracy. The most important thing about any democratic regime is the way in which it uses and exploits popular sovereignty. The people are powerless if the political enterprise is not competitive.

My bias in thinking about the world around me is found in the educational choices I made. I began as a sociology major with a focus on criminology and finished in the field of political science and law. I see the need for the “masses” to participate in their governmental processes when a crisis is looming. I hope you do not doubt that one is just beginning and will last for the next twenty-five years. So just what kind of crisis is there? It is the one that is occurring between the political interests of the afluent and those of limited resources. This conflict is beginning over the resources needed to meet the needs of  Americans in the shrinking middle class and the socio-economically disavantaged which will allow them to live out their end-of-life cycle years with some dignity and quality of life.

One of the most powerful political lobbyist’s organizations in the country is AARP or the American Association of Retired People. Their membership begins at age 50. They are well aware of the fact that 78 million people born between 1946-1964 will retire and apply for social security benefits and Medicare benefits over the next twenty-five years. The National Institute on Aging is aware of the problems regarding long term care. Tammy Flanagan (Senior Benefits Director for the National Institute of Transition Planning)  wrote in an article on retirement planning that there is a federal long term care program available for federal employees. This program is easier to get than those existing long term care insurance plans for employees who do not have access to federal programs. Most of these non-federal plans are far too costly for people over 45, with limited funds,  to purchase. Also, common sense tells us that without funds no matter what program is out there for seniors they will not have access to it. Flanagan gives us an idea of what long term care costs in her article. But the figures are so depressing I will not attempt to cover them here.

When I started putting the class together, my first quarter as a student in the eLearning certification program, we were asked to think about the course we might be teaching as we progressed through the elements and courses needed to teach on-line and get the certification. It was during one of these courses, I became familiar with curriculum designing for on-line teaching and the concept of backward design. It was, simply put, a way to design lessons from the concept of the big idea of a course. Easy  to do? Not!

I am still not completely certain I have it right. My idea was, our governmental institutions and policies must be flexible and changeable in order to meet the changing needs of its citizenry. American citizens must become involved in their political processes to guide the making of law and policy on critical issues that face the so called “masses” today. That brings me to the idea,”… we must begin to think of new ways to solve old and new social problems.”  I hope this is the lynch pin that holds all the information in this course together; because, that is where I was going with the course. In fact, sociology studies help us understand how groups of people behave or think. Politial Science helps us understand how political institutions work and how they develop laws and policy. Gerontology helps us understand the influence the process of aging has on a nations citizenry, socially, politically and financially.

Although my classmates have heard me say this ad nauseam, in the next 25 years we will have to re-think our concepts of retirement, aging, Medicare, Medicaid, insurance, end of life saving plans and care-giving methods and institutions. We will have to re-define quality of life and personal dignity issues and concepts. Finally, we will have to truly investigate the aging process and determine what needs to be done in order to live longer, healthier and more prosperous lives during our end-of-life cycle.

Note: The video is circa an hour and eigtheen minutes long. You can get much of the information watching the first 14 minutes.  For those of you interested in the ideas, it is worth watching the whole video if you have the time.

 

 

I am in the process of setting up a course in the multi-disciplinary field of Gerontology. The main focus in the field of Gerontology is the methodical study of the aging process and the aging population and its effects on the individual and society, in every aspect. There are many big ideas in the field. For the purpose of this blog, we are exploring the retirement process which begins at a certain age; where people encounter longer lives and uncertainty, disease, incapacitation and death. One of the enduring questions in the field is how to think about and treat people who are seniors in American society or any society or country for that matter, to maximize their quality of life, as the authors of Enduring Questions in Gerontology stated.

In the United States there is a belief in “quality of life” and a certain amount of personal dignity for its citizenry, at the end of the life cycle. We still believe that we can make our own choices as to how we want to live out our remaining years and the final days of our life. We can even decide, in some states, how we want to end our lives. With this in mind, I am working on and refining my course and keep improving it in my Wiki Space online.

My course is called, The New Revolution: New Ideas on Aging and Retirement in the United States. The big questions I have posed to my learners are: Do American citizens have a right to a certain level of “Quality of Life?” How does one define quality of life? How do seniors define quality of life? When seniors are no longer independent and able to care for themselves, who gets to define it? Who is defining quality of life for seniors today? This brings us to the main focus of the course.  Do the 21st Century institutions we have created for our aging population truly care for their needs in a way that assures them, that they will have personal dignity and a respectable acceptable “quality of life” in their end of life cycle years?

As the “Baby Boomer” generation retires over the next twenty-five years at age 65, our political and economic system will begin to feel the effects of this tsunami of retirees. In the near future our government will no longer be able to guarantee these citizens the same level of economic support. Neither will the government be able to provide funds for the medical needs of this generation of people.

The government’s responsibility is to protect the health and welfare of its most vulnerable citizens. Without the financial means to fund Social Security and Medicare, we as citizens realize we must begin to re-think our thoughts on aging and retirement. We must begin to make decisions that allow for their personal dignity and a certain level of quality of life. We need to re-think the concept of retirement and very possibly eliminate it altogether. We will need to consider new ways of handling IRAs, 401 Ks and savings for their remaining years. We need to re-think how we can facilitate the end of life cycle plans these people will need to make. Finally, it is imperative that we re-think the concept of age discrimination.

The bottom line is the more people working and paying taxes, the more money the government has to spend helping the most vulnerable citizens at the end of their life. How can we change our institutions and concepts on aging in order to meet the financial needs of our senior citizens? How can we  help seniors who have limited resources and cannot pay for their own care or daily living expenses and still preserve their quality of life and personal dignity in the process?

Are the institutions we currently have in place the best way to help our citizens live out their remaining days? This is the guiding question I hope my learners will be asking themselves as we progress through the ill structured problem I will present them with.  They will be asked to research the options seniors have today by placing a loved one or themselves in the care of others after a sudden illness that has left them unable to care for themselves. They will have limited resources available to them. And, they must determine how safe the placement environment is and whether it will meet their loved one’s need for social contact and human concern regarding their welfare.

I want my students to be able to make informed decisions as to the appropriate placement of a senior who is incapacitated based on what they know that person would want or need. They will be able to gather information in a group from the internet or other resources to make that decision. They will be able to analyze the material gathered. They will be able to comprehend the problems and issues involved in resolving the care giving issue. They will be able to grasp the moral and ethical components of their decision-making. They will be able to determine the need for policy changes and will be able to present them to a committee or agency.

To accomplish these objectives, they will need a certain level of problem-solving skills. They must have the ability to work in groups. They should be able to research the internet and conduct personal interviews. They must be able to think critically and deeply about issues and concepts present in real world situations. They must have a blog site and be familiar with Web 2.0 tools.

In the next Module 4, I will ask them to create a new system and new approach to the concepts on aging they have learned in the class. I want to them rethink their decision with a whole new set of circumstances. For example, what if the only two care giving facilities in the area are being investigated for senior resident fraud and  abuse. Or, the care givers available for helping your loved one are unskilled and do not speak your loved one’s language. The house physician seldom visits the patients in their potential new environment and the residents are beginning to complain. They state they have health problems that need medical attention; but they feel these problems are over-looked during these physician visits. Medicare and Medicaid cannot help fund the level of care your loved one needs.

The reality is: our institutions can no longer fund the social welfare programs we have in place for citizens reaching the age of 65. Our citizens have the duty and responsibility of becoming involved with the decision-making process in order to change current concepts and policies before the situation reaches the crisis level.

Well, already I am experiencing difficulties understanding what I should be doing in my blogs. I believe Robin wants us reflecting on our learning in Module 2. Given the fact that I have not taken courses in Education before, the theories presented in this field of study must be close to those Robin had us learning about this week, primarily Perry’s theory and 9 positions.  There were the new concepts of novice and expert behavior and adaptive and routine thinking regarding the solving of ill-structured and well structured problems. Also, Communities of Participation and Situated Cognition helped give us new insight into the ways people learn and in what context or environment.  All of this was in preparation for designing our course. The Essentials of eLearning was the structure course and Assessment is the content portion of the eLearning certificate.

Robin writes in our modules, if you do not understand the material at the end of the module, you are not fully engaged.  It looks like I am going to be engaged with this blog and my Module 3 work for the next ten hours today and probably ten hours tomorrow. I will spend several hours writing and refining my blog on Saturday…and then my second blog on meta cognition after that for Module 3.  This is becoming the most engaging course I have ever taken, with the most time spent learning the material and writing about what I have learned in order for Robin to assess whether I “get it” or not. This is not a course for non-thinkers! This is not a course for learners who hate to blog, unless of course they are far more creative than I am.

I understand the concepts put forth in Module 2; but would love to have the time to challenge them.  Unfortunately this class is not about challenging concepts and theories. It  is about applying the principles of backward design in order to construct an online course.  To do this one must begin by understanding backward design. The guiding question here is, what do I want my learners to learn in my course? Ultimately this is the big question. Then we begin to ask ourselves, how can I help my learners learn using their CoPs’ resources and each other through discussion?  Then, how will I get them to use an adaptive approach to the ill structured problems I will present to them? I want them to learn in a situated cognitive learning environment. Given all this how will I assess their work? What tasks will I assign them to give them practice using their problem solving skills? What types of assessment will I use to help me figure out whether they are thinking in an adaptive way or in the ninth position of Perry?

This is the point at which I can’t help but wonder why I was not born a Vulcan. One simple ” Vulcan mind meld” would solve all my time limitation issues. I suppose the following quote is a good one (but in spite of this, I would rather do mind melds as assessment and take my chances with messy minds):

“Vulcan mind meld; utter foolishness. Anyone with an ounce of sense wouldn’t share his[/her] own brain with someone else; would you? I certainly wouldn’t.”

                                                                                                          –The Doctor

Okay, there it is. No mind melds are on my horizon.  I will have to continue to digest the material and figure out a way to get another  A.  A grade, why I am I working toward a grade?!  Settle down now.  All it is showing me is I am on the right track and completed the assignments requested of me. Teaching or landing a teaching job will be the true test of what I have learned and what I know how to apply. Of course I might need some plastic surgery and a fake ID showing my age about…15 to 20 years younger. Or possibly a brain transplant. Does anyone know if it is possible to get one somewhere if your unable to pay for it?

 

 

Hopefully, you have watched my video on what we needed to learn from Module 2 in the Assessment course. You will hear me say..”I do not think that William Perry …” (at this point the video fades and ends). After reading everything I had time to read on Perry’s Scheme of Intellectual Development, I do not think his method of obtaining open ended questions from a population of students was a universal sample. I believe his limited sample has not given his Schema theory reliability and validity; but I do not have time to test his theory or study it in depth. Given these facts, it is difficult to set his Schema Theory aside and say it is not a true testable quantifiable theory, made up of testable hypothesese; but simply a lower level measurement of untestable data called categorization or there is no significant corrrelation between his Independent Variable(s) and the dependent variable(s). One rather reasonable explanation of this scheme was presented in a paper by William J. Rapaport and might help you understand my thinking on the matter. But let us get back to the task at hand.

Like all intellectual theorists from Harvard, we find Perry’s scheme is far deeper than most scholars can comprehend or explain away. But, we understand that he put forth a category of knowledge that explained and/or tried to explain how learners process knowledge. His journey starts by saying we begin to learn by looking at the world as a place of black and white or right and wrong. We do not question authority and tend to see the big “Truth” of what we’re being told in grade school; we are thinking in a very dualistic way. Even when we are in high school, we have only started to break away from this dualist pattern of thinking, while we begin to see the world has many areas of grey, where right and wrong or good and bad just doesn’t fit. We as learners begin to question and rebel against authority to find our own way in our world, often facing new challenges the authorities have never had to deal with.

Many of us, will stay with this comfortable way of reasoning and making sense out of the world we’re faced with because it is comfortable and doesn’ take much effort on our part or we are not strong enough to break free from dualistic thought patterns. For some learners, going to an institution of higher learning is a necessary part of maturing and becoming an adult and/or a scholar. As students or learners we are developing and moving through Perry’s positions, even though we may not recognize what we’re doing at the time. As we become more educated and socialized by our studies within the confines of the University, I believe as Perry does or did, that we move through the positions and eventually become the subject matter experts we strive to be. Let us hope we are learning to apply ourselves to problem resolution with the greater good of society in mind, based on our mores and ethics.

I was thirty three when I first began my studies in our local University. I was a high school drop out. I was, however, not processing information in a dualistic manner. I had learned not to trust authority to know all the answers, because they did not. Furthermore, I found myself trying to find new ways to solve my problems and wanted to develop the skills to move myself from poverty to a higher level of pay. During the years I worked on my Associates degree, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just followed my interests. That lead me into the field of Sociology and Criminology, with an interest in international issues and political science.

Eventually, I began a doctoral program of study. It was at this point in my learning journey, I realized how little we really know about anything in our world. I began the task of creating my own theory to explain the phenomena I was witnessing in my own life and the world around me. I was still a novice and behaving as a novice; I was quickly transforming into an expert in my field, with a higher degree of insight and thoughtful behavior when it came to problem solving. I now had a deeper understanding of human behavior and ways in which to understand and explain it; but I was not an expert at doing so, nor was I thinking and behaving in the position of “commitment/constructed knowledge.” I could spent hours explaining those statements. It is enough to say, at that point I was not yet a professor.

I could see structure and patterns of behavior and understand the deeper facets of a problem and wanted to put them into a theory. I thought I could find the solution to the problems confronting me and the world, in the areas of law and order; the global problem of terrorism; and transnational criminal behavior, by developing my theory. However, I found myself at odds with mainstream thinking at the time. My solution and developing theory was just left of center at a time when liberal and political left thinking was not fashionable or acceptable.

As I looked at the work of my professors and fellow students, I could categorize them as routine thinkers. They could not break outside the box; because to do so would move them into a position of adaptive thinking. Thinking outside the box and trying new ways of identifying and dealing with a problem can be risky. This is especially true (small “t”) when your body of academic work is to the left of center and a threat to more conservative interests. You may not get the funds and grants that you need to fund your project or write you thesis. Every professor knows that routine thinking or following the rules of a discipline can lead to future funds. Every scholar and associate professor knows that thinking outside the box may be the only way to identify and solve a problem; but it does not lead to the grants and money the department needs to attract great minds to the institution and further institutional goals, if it is not mainstream thinking. After all institutions of higher learning are money making corporations. If you want to learn new skills and new ways of dealing with problems…you pay to learn, you follow the rules and you do not “make tsunami waves.”

Now on the stage appears Situated Cognition and the culture of learning as described by John Seely Brown and his associates. The author writes that most contemporary schools of thoughs about learning (cognition) believe there is a division between “thinking” and consequently” doing” which is unconnected from the situation or environment or institution in which it is taking place. Brown believes you cannot separate the “know what” and the “know how” from the culture or environment the learners finds themselves in. Or as I stated in the paragraph above, we are a product of the learning institution or community of participation (CoP) we are taking part in: such as our workplace; school; college; or organizations and associations we belong to. Therefore if you take this into consideration, we are a product of the learning cultures and environments (CoPs) we find ourselves in through-out our lives.

My learning culture and environment at this time is Bellevue College. I am controlled by the information my instructor wants me to learn and because of the fact that I am answering her “Big Questions.” However, because this is an eLearning course on line, I am granted permission to think outside the box to answer the “Big Questions” of this course on Assessment. In fact my PLE allows me to learn  and research other ideas on the subject of eLearning and Assessment. However if I just had a PLE, I may or may not reach the same conclusions and obtain and refine the same skills I may have at the end of this course. My thinking is being directed by the modules, while my conclusions will continue to be my own.

I like the structure of a college course vs the challenge of finding my own structure within my learning environment. However, I want to explore my own thinking about thinking. I want my conclusions to be based on what I am learning in this class, based on my interests, as well as what is being presented to me in my PLE. In the end, I want the freedom of finding my own solutions to ill-structured problems, whether or not they agree with mainstream thinking or the college I am learning in. Today’s eLearning courses and PLEs give me the freedom to think and solve problems apart from the pressures of institutions and institutional goals. In fact they encourage me to do so.

I am posting a video that I would rate a bit removed from mainstream thinking. While I do not know if there is a conspiracy out there, run by the Illuminati or if the Illuminati even exists, my intellectual curiosity wants me to ponder the questions raised in the video; because there is a message in this video and several ill-structured problems. I believe most scholars would not veiw this video. I, however, believe it has a message that should be pondered and the problems brought to our attention do need resolution. Are you willing to consider it?

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If one is concerned about life long learning and strives to reach that never-ending goal, a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is essential.  Yes, PLEs are a new approach to education.  However, education can just go so far.  One of the criticisms I have heard about the Certification Program on eLearning at Bellevue College are the missing pieces of the course for this certification. Some learners think it is because we spend more time learning how to use the different tools of the trade or progs, then trying to grasp the concepts and goals in the course. Still others, those that I agree with,  think the lack of a course designed to put all the pieces together into a presentable on-line course is lacking and probably the most important part of the certification.  This is especially true for those of us in the course who have not had teaching experience.

One of the questions raised in our first module on assessment is what do we see ourselves doing in the future, when we achieve all the skills we are now learning to master. I, for example, really don’t see myself using them.  Why? Because I need to teach and to do this I need experience. Fives years as a graduate student and a eLearning certificate will probably not enable me to find work in the field. When I think about assessment, I think about what the assessors in the college are thinking about when they offer certificates and programs to students. What good is the education if you still do not have all the skills you need to secure employment in that field of study? And, what do you do when there is no other forth-coming programs and/or courses to help you continue to develop these skills? I think what happens is, the people with teaching experience or who are currently teaching use what they learn and the rest of us are still knocking on the door trying to get in. So I created and am creating a personal learning environment and network to help fill in the blanks, since I am not in a masters program and cannot get a teaching assistantship, which many universities offer in their disciplines.

My personal learning system or environment and/or network consists of tools to help me get the information I need to use the tools and master the concepts we are being taught.  Also, it helps me stay current with the developments in the field of eLearning and instructional design. I am searching for an online college that might give me further help toward achieving my goal of teaching, if possible. I have not been very successful in this regard. There was a course called, “How to Teach in a Community College” offered by Central Washington University; but they don’t seem to be offering it this summer. I need a course like this to succeed in an interview and to prepare for the next challenge of actually teaching on-line.

With this in mind, I have set up Facebook which is my primary social media. Because I am a student, I use a Learning Management System (LMS) called Blackboard. In the future, I hope to use a new system called Instructive Canvas that allows learners to link Web 2.0 technologies with this new LMS. Diigo is my library.  I don’t have room in my house or on my hard drive to store all the things I want to keep and refer to as I complete my current studies and beyond. Wikispaces is my work place or work bench where I go to create my class and my ideas for a class. Instructive Canvas is where it will all end up, once I can put it together completely. Twitter and my numerous search engines, and this includes Google, You Tube (my favorite) and blogs…are the places I go to get the answers I want, especially the how to information. Linkedin and Google are my storage sites for my portfolio information, with the written refinements of my portfolio on my blog site in WordPress and on Google.

These are the places I am creating in order to keep learning. I have found on-line instructors are facilitators not necessarily educators.  If I have a question about how to use a tool, I go to my “go to” and “how to” places on-line. Eventually, I hope to have a few people I can go to and learn from on a personal basis as well. So far this is not happening as much as I would like. I spend a lot of time on the courses I am taking currently and have not had the opportunity to promote my blog site and develop outside friendships. With luck and some hard work, I hope to cultivate and expand this aspect of my learning environment. I am a social creature after all and cyberspace can be a lonely environment or virtual reality.

Well, last week I arrived in class on Tuesday night, on time.  No one was in the class!  Then, I realized with the help of my old supervisor in Student Recruitment and Enrollment, I was there a week early and the class was the following Tuesday.  The next day, my current employer was angry with me for taking two hours off in two weeks. I truly wanted to drop the class; but the taxpayers of King County have given me the money to take these courses and deserve better from me.

Once in class, I tried to get my computer to work, since we were asked to bring them. I soon learned I would not be able to log on and would have needed to go to N250 to get the necessary permissions to do so.  I cannot do this since I work and cannot get the time off. So much for helping online students if they have day jobs and cannot get to the campus during the day. I did not feel like I was on the same page with the instructor.  I did not understand the course presented in power point by her; and I felt I never got the answers to my questions about some of the things posted on Blackboard.

After the class, I found a $25.00 dollar ticket on my car.  I drove up to a campus officer and felt my anger well up inside me.  First of all, he was dropping his ashes on the ground while smoke billowed over his head, looking like a rent-a-cop out of some cheap magazine. When I asked him with clenched teeth why I got the ticket, he acted like I had just murdered a cop, run over the body with my car and spit on him.  He lacked even the most basic of manners. I found myself wondering if he was ever given any customer service or human relations training. I may be a student; but because I am…I help pay his wages.  I guess he forgot about that fact.  As a state taxpayer, my tax dollars go to paying his wages as well.

This experience with Bellevue College made me wonder why the college thinks the students are getting a quality education.  They hire about two-thirds of their instructors as non-tenured  intermittent adjunct faculty without benefits. The college expects the students to get a quality education from these instructors who have so little invested in the learning system and are paid far less than tenured faculty.  I realize they must be very dedicated; but I wonder if they are the best our taxpayer money can buy? There is an old saying,”…you get what you pay for.” I am not certain how they have reached the conclusion that they have not lowered the quality of student education with the latest budget cuts. In spite of all this, so far I have had a wonderful learning experience at this college and even worked for them as a campus switchboard operator.

I emailed my last instructor tonight totally out of sorts.  As always, she gave me jewels of advice and a hug. The college does hire excellent people to work for the students. However, my last instructor did go to another university to get a job.  So much for hanging on to excellent teachers. It seems to me if you promise students quality, you should offer them the best instructors. I am certain, I will find a way to communicate with the assessment instructor. But for now, I am not certain how well this quarter will go and cannot drop the class.