I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been wanting to shake things up a bit in my own blogging. I run across literally hundreds of fascinating pictures, movies, links, articles, in my weekly travels that I wanted to begin sharing a few of these artifacts each week. I was going to start this trend on Fridays but that felt too obvious. So I have opted for a series of Monday links in an attempt to start the week off on the upbeat.
This video caught my eye at the gym while I was listening to something entirely different (most often the gym tends to play music I rather avoid). I have always been a fan of illustrated how-things-work books. Similarly, I always enjoyed science texts in school because of the pictures and illustrations showing in select detail how a cell divides or how a star is born or how a bridge is designed. The video also appealed to me as it feeds into my love of information design and display. The social commentary is oblique but still there as we see the world of transit, consumption, temperate economic markets, and love being addressed in a rather clever instructional style.
Now if this doesn't get you dancing, then you are working way too hard. This video appeals to my inner-four year old. After all, life is too precious to be sitting still all the time.
"Clay unpicks what has made some "social" Internet media into something utterly transformative, while other attempts have fizzled or fallen to griefers and vandals. Clay picks perfect anecdotes to vividly illustrate his points, then shows the larger truth behind them."
[video] Howard Rheingold at TED Here Howard delivers a brief overview of collaboration, participatory media and collective action with his usual sense of style and panache at TED.
[video] danah boyd on MyFriends, MySpace Here danah speaks about her research on social networks. She provides a great historical context to the various sites that have come and gone from the center of Internet activity, as well as some insight into what brought about their successes and failures.
[video] Billy Collins: Forgetfulness Former US Poet Laureate reads his poem "Forgetfulness" with animation by Julian Grey of Headgear. Mixed Media Animation + Poetry = another reason I heart YouTube.
Individual/social aspect of sharing I've been thinking a lot about the notion of sharing (on the Internet), how it can both serve an individual's self interest and contribute to a larger social knowledge base. Tagging bookmarks on del.icio.us, for example, is one way we serve our own interest (cataloging our links) and contribute to a collective interest (the application provides links to others who have found and tagged the same item).
Lurking In this regard, I have developed a fascination with the literal idea of lurking. On the outside, it carries a kind of creepy connotation, lascivious even. Another way to think about this type of non-participatory viewing might include spying or espying: we act as watchers, we take notes, we peek around the corner catching a glimpse of our target stepping into a cab. It almost sounds melodramatic. As I recall (trans. no authority), the term lurking as it relates to cyberspace dates back to a usage associated with MUDs and MOOs where people entered a room and then said nothing while others chatted all around them.
Social networking as (e)spyware? Yet, when you begin to really look closely, lurking and espying represent a large amount of what happens on the Web. I am not suggesting any malicious intent is necessarily involved by those who prefer to look rather than participate. Social networking sites encourage us to search and browse, to share and compare. That's what friends do, right? RSS and aggregators, for example, automate our ability to eavesdrop on conversations around the globe. But on the Web, eavesdropping is necessarily encouraged. And what we're seeing on the Web is not secret, per se. Eavesdropping on the Web is a way to learn things you might not learn if you were directly looking for a particular answer. On the Web, voyeurism is implicit and might not necessarily symbolize a deviant act. [Of course, it can be quite the deviant act when people use social networking sites for purposes other than interacting truthfully.]
Friends Friends share. So people who don't share are not your friends, right? So what do we call people who we share with who are not our friends? Residue? By standers? Neutrons? What greater affect does not sharing or participating create? Global warming? War? Famine? A surplus of antique lamps no one will buy on eBay?
Agora Ideally, the various social and participatory applications available to us can serve us as an agora, not necessarily a marketplace, in a capitalist sense, but more like the Greek verb ageiro which means to gather. The Web affords a means of convergence of commercial and civic life that can be more than about buying and selling merchandise--it can also serve as a place where people can freely examine a wide range of ideas and ideals. Which we are doing now.
Reflection as Action But the next step requires us to be reflective. The Internet and Web have afforded us an opportunity to re-examine and re-define our morals, our communities, our nations, and the globe. But will these conversations be limited to only a few? What mechanisms are in place to encourage and support a wide range of thought and activity? Perhaps now that we have the ability to connect one-to-one-one-to-many, we should begin thinking about how to harness this collective social power and turn it into meaningful social action, promote open and meaningful dialogue, and serve as a platform for experimentation built on a wide range of perspectives. This is already happening in manyways and will, no doubt, continue to grow and become part of the water. But it should never be taken for granted. If the last U.S. presidential regime has taught us anything, it's that freedom is just another word for everything to lose.
Is the tent too big? Is there such a thing as too many voices in a democracy? I think we need to explore these ideas more and continue to experiment on smaller scales to see how social software can serve as both a personal learning environment (PLE) and support positive social action.
As always, your thoughts and corrections are encouraged.
2. Lead with what you want, not what you have. Don't let your wiki be only a dumping ground for everything you know already. Create space to allow insights to be shared, trends developed, a space where new thinking can take place.
3. Link link link. Cross-link to broaden your reference sources.
From First Monday Volume 13, number 3, 3 March 2008
A fun, somewhat academic romp through social networking and the social aspects of surveillance. Albrechtslund notes that the concept of social surveillance is not necessarily negative nor is it free from danger. Rather, he argues that online social networking presents us with an opportunity to rethink acts of participation, observing, and being observed:
"What can we learn about surveillance through social networking? Characteristic of online social networking is the sharing of activities, preferences, beliefs, etc. to socialize. I argue that this practice of self–surveillance cannot be adequately described within the framework of a hierarchical understanding of surveillance. Rather, online social networking seems to introduce a participatory approach to surveillance, which can empower – and not necessarily violate – the user."
"FreeRice is really elegant. It's not trying to do too much: Users take a vocabulary quiz. Correct answers add to the user's score and to the size of the donation. Each question loads a new ad. The revenue from the ads funds the donation. Perfect!"
FreeRice's mission is two-fold: feed people, improve your vocabulary. Seriously! And the site seems to be working.
Simple. Elegant. Fun. Practical. This site feels like a model for entrepreneurship for all the right reasons.
[Note: Triggering Town is the title of a brilliant book by the poet Richard Hugo which I encourage you to read, even if you don't write poetry, but love writing.]
This post was developed for an educational technology/professional development workshop in the College of Education at The University of Florida. Feel free to add any additional thoughts or comments as you see fit.
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Workload Management Strategies for Online Educators
In a study authored by Larry Ragan and Sara Terheggen (2003), workload management strategies were catagorized into four groups:
(1) authoring strategies,
(2) teaching strategies,
(3) course revision and improvement strategies, and
(4) institutional strategies.
For the sake of this presentation, I will focus on a selection of highly relevant strategies (1) authoring and (2) teaching strategies only. On occasion, I have pulled in one or two additional research sources to provide additional strategies relevant to designing online courses.
Define your objectives, learning outcomes, exit competencies, and an explanation of how the learning process will be evaluated.
"By developing a course development model at the begining of the course authoring process, faculty members can avoid inconsistencies in content presentation, misapplication of technologies, and confusion regarding roles and responsibilities" (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 14).
Provide specific instructions for assignments
Providing specific and detailed instruction significantly reduces faculty workload by reducing student queries and instructor intervention.
Examples:
(1) specify word/and or page count and qualitative expectations in assignment criteria, or
(2) establish grading rubrics and make them available to students (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 17).
Design balanced instructional activities
Examples:
(1) try using self-graded assignments for a way to review major concepts
(2) try using peer-evaluation to share assessment workload
(3) use self-evaluations
(4) limit the number of activities designed into the course (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, pp. 18-19).
Finalize one module or unit before developing remainder of course
This allows early guidance and adjustment so that subsequent units follow with minimal adjustment. (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 19).
Develop rubrics for each graded assignment
Rubrics (formatted explanations) provide learners with the criteria they need to meet, thus reducing the number of questions an instructor might receive. Rubrics also reduce grading time by using consistent criteria accross assignments. Finally, rubrics provide an order of importnace for evaluation criteria and allow for more precise evaluation of student work. (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 20).
This reduces faculty workload by limiting the number of student queries on an assortment of issues including the schedule, assignments, supplemental readings, grading, ethics, prerequisites, goals, and learning objectives. "Sometimes it is easier to create the syllabus as a final step in the course development process." (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 22).
Define frequency of interaction
So, since your online is asynchronous, you should be available to assist students any time, day or night, right?
Hmmm.... Probably not.
Let conversations in discussion forums go on and see how they develop before jumping in with the "answers." Consider creating weekly synopsis/review posts. Point out strong points made by students and correct student generated points that are off-target. (JALN, 8, 2, p. 35)
Define operating parameters of your course
Doing so eliminates many questions surrounding the frequency, response time and quality of interactions between students/students, and students/faculty. (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 23).
Establish a routine.
Establishing a routine for regular and planned interaction within the online course and with students help faculty members to remain in control of their workloads. (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 24).
Establish consistent methods of communication
The use of public posting areas, discussion forums, and/or e-mail announcements for questions of general interest to the entire class reduces the need for individual e-mail responses to commonly asked questions. Students come to rely on accessing announcements posted in a general format if used consistently.
Use the right communication tool for the right task. For example, if the question requires a simple announcement, use e-mail. If the question requires discussion between the students and faculty member, use a public discussion board. (Ragan & Terheggen, 2003, p. 27).
Create opportunities for self-directed learning (Conrad, 2004; Berge, 1995)
You know you're content. You can talk about your subject forever. To prevent overloading yourself with the responsibility of creating content, create situations for students to provide content (Conrad, 2004).
--Provide initial structures and the encourage learners' self-direction
Teaching online provides you a wonderful opportunity to rethink teaching and learning from the ground up. Here's a talk given by Alan Kay at TED 2007 that focuses on a powerful idea about teaching ideas that incorporates a number of ideas mentioned above.
Other workload management studies for teaching online
In 2003 Lazarus published a research paper that showed the findings associated with how much time it takes faculty members to teach a course online. She examined 3 courses of 25 students each. She asked instructors to self-monitor the amount of time it took them to complete the following activities:
(1) reading and responding to emails,
(2) reading, participating in, and grading 10 online discussions, and
(3) grading 15 assignments.
The data showed that teaching each online course required 3 to 7 hours per week, with the greatest number of emails and amount of time required to engage learners during the first and second weeks of the semester. Participation in and grading the discussions took the most time and remained steady throughout the term.
The study concludes by asserting that [if adequately designed] the time needed to teach online courses "falls within a range of reasonable expectations for teaching live or online" (Lazarus, 2003, p. 47).
Thompson (2004) conducted a study of comparative workload in the online environment. Results of her studies indicate that faculty workload for teaching online courses, as measured by time on task, was comparable to or somewhat less than that for face-to-face courses. However, a differential “chunking” of productive time contributed in some cases to a perception of increased workload. (Thompson, 2004, p. 86)
Assessment and Rubrics: Online Assessment Resources for Teachers-University of Wisconsin-Stout Here you will find a hand selected index of authentic assessment resources. You are one click away from vital information about performance assessment, rubrics, negotiable contracting, and electronic portfolios. We include links to web based tools for creating your own assessments. Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators Assessment and Rubric resources -- a collection of assessment rubrics and graphic organizers that may be helpful to you as you design your own.
Ragan, L. C. & Terheggen, S. L. (Eds.) (2003). Effective workload management strategies for the online environment. A Report Funded by a Grant from The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to The Pennsylvania State University World Campus. April 15, 2003. Retrieved 24 March 2008 from http://search-results.aset.psu.edu/search?q=Effective+Workload+Management+
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Lurking
Agora
In a study authored by Larry Ragan and Sara Terheggen (2003), workload management strategies were catagorized into four groups: 
