Discussion: The Disruptive Participant

   THE DISRUPTIVE PARTICIPANT

          In an online classroom there may be times when a student does not adhere to the guidelines for professional conduct when communicating in the classroom.  The guidelines for professional conduct within the class discussion forum are listed in the Policy and Procedures of the university and they have been reviewed in this class the first week of classes.  Please take the time to review these as they may be a useful reference for this weeks discussion.
 

By Wednesday:  Read the following exchange of a discussion between a disruptive student and two other students. After reading the exchange you are to use class resources, personal experience, and/or your own research to discuss how the instructor should stop the behavior and how to redirect the discussion back to the topic.

Your reply should be 3 to 4 paragraphs in length.  You are to respond to at least two of your classmate’s posts.

Click on the button below to read the discussion.

                 

Discussion:

Student A:  (Posts initial response to discussion)

Student B:  I found your experience with unprofessional posting by a classmate to be interesting.  I will remember the action your instructor took to stop the behavior.

Disruptor:  You have to be kidding me, I don’t see anything wrong with the behavior of student A’s classmate.  He just was giving his honest opinion of how stupid you were in the things you were writing.  I don’t think it has changed much you still are taking things a little too personal, toughen up, it’s rough out there.  And student B you are a whiner too if you think that the instructor did the right thing.

Student A:  It is not necessary to get personal, I was just responding to the question the best that I could.

Disruptor:  Poor thing, I suppose you will complain about my response too.  I will try to make them more acceptable to all the whiners in the class.

Discussion Rubric

Quality of Work Submitted	A: Exemplary Work A= 4.00; A- = 3.75 All of the previous, plus the following:	B:  Average Work B+ = 3.50; B = 3.00; B- = 2.75	C: Minimal Work C+ = 2.50; C = 2.00; C- = 1.75	F: Work Submitted but Unacceptable F = 1.00
Contribution to the Learning Community	The student’s contribution meets all assigned criteria and frequently prompts further discussion of a topic. The student takes a leadership role in discussions. Regularly contributes to collaborative learning. The student demonstrates exemplary awareness of the community’s needs.	The student’s contribution satisfactorily meets the assigned criteria for contributions to the discussions. The student interacts frequently and encourages others in the community. The student demonstrates an awareness of the community’s needs.	The student’s contribution is minimal to the posting and response deadlines. Occasionally, the student makes an additional comment. The student makes minimal effort to become involved within the  community.	The student’s contribution does not meet the assigned criteria The student does not respond or responds late to postings. The student does not make an effort to participate in the  community as it develops.
Initial Posting: Critical Analysis of Issues **May include, but are not limited to, scholarly articles, collegial discussions; information from conferences, in service, faculty development, and/or meetings.	Demonstrates critical thinking to analyze and relate key points. Supports content with required readings or course materials, and/or use of  other creditable sources** in addition to those materials.	Relates to the assigned discussion topic with satisfactory evidence of critical thinking.  Summarizes and supports content using information from required readings and course materials.	Summarizes or restates discussion topic components with minimal evidence of critical thinking skills. Post is off topic.  Post has minimal or no connection to course materials.	Does not relate to the assigned discussion topic. Post does not summarize or contain a connection to required readings or course materials..
Responses: Quality of Learning for Colleagues and Self	Provide specific, constructive, and supportive feedback to extend colleagues’ thinking. Encourage continued and deeper discussion.  Offer additional resources or experiences. Demonstrate exemplary evidence of personal learning as a result of interaction with colleagues.	Provide constructive and supportive feedback to colleagues. Refer to sources from required readings and course materials. Demonstrate satisfactory evidence of personal learning as a result of interaction with colleagues.	Provide general feedback with minimal or no connection to required readings or course materials. Demonstrate minimal evidence of personal learning as a result of interaction with colleagues.	Provide agreement without substance or connection to required readings or course materials. Demonstrate no evidence of personal learning as a result of interaction with colleagues.
Expression	Provides clear, concise opinions and ideas effectively written in Standard Edited English. Includes appropriate APA-formatted citations and reference list for outside sources and direct quotes.	Provides clear opinions and ideas written in Standard Edited English. Includes satisfactory APA-formatted citations and reference list for outside sources and direct quotes.	Expression is unclear or interrupted by errors. Includes minimal or no APA-formatted citations and reference list for outside sources and direct quotes.	Unacceptable written expression. May include outside sources and direct quotes that lack appropriate citations.
Final Assignment Grade	A: Exemplary Work	B: Average Level Work	C: Minimal Work	F: Work Submitted but Unacceptable

The above rubric was edited from:

                            Walden University M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology Program

Technology and Multimedia in Online Learning

   Distance learning has evolved through the use technology to become an accepted and respected form of quality education.  Making it possible for more people to advance in their education. Without technology there would be no online learning opportunities.

   With the collaborative tools available an online learning environment becomes a community of cooperative learners.  Multimedia allows the instructor to create differentiated learning lessons more effective for all learners.

The most important considerations an online instructor should make before implementing technology are:

Ø    Engaged

Ø    Presence – social, cognitive, and teaching

Ø    Participating

Ø    Learners get to know each other

Ø    Set personal and learning goals

Ø    Instructor makes course requirements clear

Ø    Instructor leads the way for the course learning community

Ø    Assure that students have the required content resources

(Boettcher & Conrad, 2010)

   The instructor needs to become familiar with the Course Management System (CMS) that the institution he or she is associated.  Also, the instructor needs to be familiar with the tools that will be used in the course (2010). 

   Implications of usability and accessibility of technology tools have for online teaching are many.  The instructor must know the students and where they are located.  There are many areas of the country which does not have accessibility to computers except by traveling a long distance to get to a college center with a library where they can use the computers there which are connected to the internet.  Due to the lack of internet access whether it is because of no service or the expense is not feasible for many families.  Many technology tools are useless as well as cell phones are common, but there are too few towers and most areas cannot get service.

   As I go forward in my career in instructional design the most appealing technology tools  that I would use are the CMS and aggregator.

   A good CMS is probably the most important tool to make teaching and learning go smoother.  I have used Moodle and found it acceptable; what I can not believe I am saying is that I really like using Blackboard now that I have used it for a few semesters.  Blackboard is easy to use and as a part of it you have many useful applications. 

   I hope to teach online kindergarten to 12^th grade, depending on what I am teaching and at what level will determine the tools that I use in my instruction.  I would also like to work on developing online learning material for students with special needs, if I am in this position I will use many more tools.  One of my goals is to become more familiar with and how to use more technology. 

   An aggregator is a web2.0 tool which creates a list of all blogs, wickis, etc.. As an instructor you can type in a name and get a list of what the student is working on.  In other words you would get be able t see if a blog or wiki is being used. The aggregator would save a lot of time looking up wha the student is working on and even then some could be overlooked (Palloff & Pratt, nd).

References:

Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (nd). Enhancing the online experience. Walden University class resources.  Video

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide, simple and practical pedagogical tips. Jossey-Bass.

Plagiarism and Cheating

Plagiarism and Cheating

Plagiarism and Cheating are harsh words regardless of the context in which they are used.  Children as young as kindergarten can be seen looking at a classmate’s paper to see how they are doing a task asked of them.  This behavior would require research to find out why people feel the need to cheat and how to stop the behavior.  My task in writing this paper is to discuss adults in plagiarism by the adult learner and how carefully designed assignments and tests can prevent the need for cheating and/or plagiarism.

The increased use of the internet has created more instances of cut and paste along with the other forms of plagiarism, but the internet has also provided ways to detect plagiarism (Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006). There are free online search engines such as Google which allows instructors to track down copied phrases. Examples of commercial plagiarism detection services include Essay Verification Engine (EVE) and Turnitin.com; these online services compare individual student papers to Web documents and/or essay databases to find and report matching text.  With proper citing the use of cut and paste or paraphrased text there is no plagiarism as authors give free use of their material if it is properly cited (2006).  Just as plagiarism is hard to detect it is also difficult to prove.

There seems to be two sides to every story and while some deliberately and knowingly will use others work without proper citation there are those that do not see that copy and paste is plagiarism or that using their own work from another class is cheating (Palloff & Pratt, nd).  The only way to stop this way of thinking is by educating students to what plagiarism is and proper citing of material (Palloff & Pratt, nd).  I taught Reading and Writing 100, preparing students for their classes they would be.  A recommendation was that I do at least one class on what plagiarism is and the different forms of cheating that they may not realize was cheating.  I invited the college’s head librarian to do a presentation, which I knew to be very effective. I had students tell me semesters later that one of the most useful things that they learned in my class was about plagiarism and other academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty may also be made more difficult through the design of assignments and examinations. Examinations should be designed to that they can be completed collaboratively and information can be looked up wherever and however needed.  The examinations should be made up of application type questions using the materials that they have been working with and show how to use it in real life situations. Using this design of examinations the instructor can determine if the student has the skills needed in real world situations.

I was very much impressed with the facilitation strategies of Polloff and Pratt.  I will make sure that the students understand what plagiarism is and how and when to cite material.  Use application questions in assignments and examinations.  In the video, Plagiarism and Cheating, the discussion on making plagiarism and cheating more difficult made a lot of sense and I will definitely practice.  When a person is working in their chosen profession and are asked to complete a task, that person will not just lock himself or herself away and try to complete it from memory.  The person will use every means possible to find accurate information; so why do we expect students to not use their tools to find the answers Palloff and Pratt, nd).  I was told at some point in my higher education that as quickly as information changes it is most important not to memorize information but to know where to go to find out what we need to know.

According to the article Plagiarism by Adult Learners Online:  A Case Study in Detection and Remediation by Jocoy and DiBiase adult learners have a lower level of cheating instances but a higher level of plagiarism (Jocoy & DiBiase, 2006).   In my opinion adult learners do not commit plagiarism intentionally, generally, they are very busy they not may know as I do that what they are writing is not an original thought but it is very difficult to remember where some information was obtained, but they do know that the information is accurate and from a good source.  Or, are not sure whether to cite.  With this information and considering that online programs are designed for adult learners who usually have very busy lives, prevention should be the primary focus and as was stated before, the best means of prevention is through educating the students.

References

Jocoy, C. & DiBiase, D.  2006.  Adult Learners Online:  A case study in detection and remediation.  International Review of Research in Open & Distance Learning, 7 (1).  Retrieved December 1, 2012 from Walden University library data base.

Video:  Dr. Palloff and Pratt, nd.  Plagiarism and Cheating.  Walden University Resource material for EIDT6510.

Community Building and Effective Online Instruction

An effective online learning experience is one in which the instructor and students are able to work and learn together in as a learning community.  A good online learning community does not just happen planning before and throughout the course are necessary.  In this session I will attempt to answer the questions; how online learning communities impact learning and satisfaction with the course, the elements of online community building, how they can be sustained, and finally the relationship between community building and effective instruction.

         

Online learning communities impact on student learning and satisfaction in the following ways:

1)   Learners and facilitators are equal partners

      In an online learning environment the instructor acts as a facilitator guiding

      the learnerc into learning.

2)   Facilitators provide a safe environment for learners

           Facilitators lay down the ground rules, monitors discussions student lounge,

           and as instructor links, as well as being an active member to assure that

           students interact in a respectful manner assuring students that they are free

           to participate and feel safe in doing so.

3)   Learning is deepened with reflection on the learning

          In an online learning community students are able to reflect on their thoughts

          and learning before they write them down.  Often in a face-to-face

          environment the learner is expected to come up with an answer without

          being allowed the time to think about the question and formulate an answer.

4)   Learning is more meaningful with learners building on each other’s knowledge and experience.

             In good online learning the learners have the opportunity to read (hear)

             from all their classmates and to share with them as well. This creates more

            meaningful learning as learners reflect on our knowledge and can build

             onto it with the knowledge shared by others.

5)   With the instructor as a guide the students become more self-directed learners.

             The instructor does not lecture, telling us what and how we need to know

             instead the concepts are presented in a variety of ways and learners are

             able to research what they want to know more about.  The learner becomes

             able to self-direct their activities preparing them to become more effective

             in their chosen careers.

Essential elements of online community building:

·      The instruction is not the focus; he does hold the key to keeping the environment safe, where students feel safe from ridicule or disrespect in discussions and participation.

·      Guidelines are put in place from beginning of how the class will operate and how everyone will work together.

·      Institutional guideline and policies are presented.

·      Accreditation – government and institutions involved can be helped and constrained

Sustaining online learning communities:

         In order to sustain the online learning community throughout the course the following are necessary:

§      Learner to learner engagement with each responsible for own learning

§      Co created knowledge and meaning – dialogue, collaborative activities

§      Everyone responsible to make all this happen; administrators, faculty, and students

§      The instructor is an equal member who is involved, engaged, and present

§      Students need to know the instructor is human and cares

Relationship between community building and effective online instruction:

v   Learning communities create a dynamic where learners and facilitator where they reflect on the learning which is how the learning gets deepened.

v   Students become self directed learners and carries over so learners get better at presenting themselves as real people.

v   Breakdowns the isolation factor of online learning, the students feel a part of the community.

In my online learning experience I have been a student in some courses that I did feel isolated.  These classes were a struggle and in two of them I had a classmate that had become an efriend and we did communicate outside the classroom so we both finished the course with no harm to our grade point averages.  Humans are generally social and do not like to feel alone, I like to be alone with my thoughts and am not good at role play or social games but at the same time I do not like to feel that I am the only one experiencing what I am.  While I know of some who do not feel they could take an online class because of their need to be in a face-to-face situation; to these people I would suggest that they give it a try and hopefully they will be a part of a class in which the instructor and learners build a good learning environment.

         I have learned that I cannot just use the same strategies as I used in the classroom.  I will need to plan and work at building an effective learning community.  I believe that I thought that the good experiences I had just happened, I did not realize what went into creating the environment.  I know that I will be referring back to the video and the readings on learning communities throughout my career.

Reference:

Palloff R., and Pratt, K., (n.d.).  Online learning communities. Video:  retrieved from learning resources of EIDT6510.

On-line Teaching Strategies

For the next 8 weeks I will be writing  responses to the course I am currently in, On-line Teaching Strategies.  I am looking forward to learning a great deal and having great discussions.

Scope Creep

     Today I will be discussing Scope Creep and an experience I have had. First for anyone not sure what scope creep is; it is not Creep who likes to scope out people or situations.  In instructional design scope creep is the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as he project progresses (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).

    My experience has been that any project I have worked on ends up being much larger and time consuming than expected.  The last Reservation Wide Early Intervention Conference that I sponsored is a good example of scope creep taking over and almost ending a project. 

    I was a teacher as well as the States Single Point of Contact for children and families birth to three with special needs.  This was the third year I had planned the conference.  The response had been great for the past two years and I wanted this to be the best yet.  I am a micromanager, which is not good, I found an excellent speaker who was available and made all the arrangements.  The conference committee got together and plans were made for the breakout sessions, meal, and other logistics.  By the time that the plans were put on paper we realized that the building that we had used previously would not be big enough so a person was assigned to look for another place to have the meeting.

    As time went by there were more and more breakout sessions added, the speaker wanted a little more time, the caterers for the meal back out, and registrations were almost double the year before.

    Thankfully all details were worked out, the high school allowed us to use their gym and classrooms for the breakout sessions.  The schedule was amended, and the cooks from two of the reservation schools offered to cook the meal if they had help serving and cleaning up. The high school allowed us to use their kitchen and permission from the administration was granted for us to use the maintenance crew to clean up and high school kids who stayed in the dorms helped with serving.

    Working cooperatively all went well, we had fun and best of all we only went over the budget by $25.00.

    I learned a great deal from this experience.  In the future I will assign jobs and then let them do the job with just weekly reports.  I will start with a plan that will include putting a limit on the number of sessions we have and the number of registrations we take.

The cooks will be asked again instead of caterers, their food was delicious. Instead of my project it became the team and communities project and therefore was more valuable to all.

The Art of Communication

Interpreting Communication 

I have worked in many in small offices and very large organizations as well as public schools, tribal charter schools, and tribal and federal offices; communication is vital in any organization and can become bigger than a project (Achong & Budrovich, nd).

 

                      Emails –   When I read the email I felt a sense of urgency and desperation.  The message was not easily read, the sentence structure made it difficult to understand the purpose of the email.   

                                         

Face – to – Face – In this presentation Jane was looking over a cubicle divider talking to Mark; the tonality of Jane’s voice was whiny and unprofessional.  My interpretation of this modality was that while Jane needed to get the data from Mark, she was not going to get it over the divider with a strained smile and pathetic begging voice. 

Voice Mail – This was different from the others, not in content but interpretation of the same message.  Jane was in control of the situation, her voice mail came across in a clear and concise manner, focused on getting the information she needed for the sake of the project (Stolovitch, nd).

         Good planning and great ideas does not guarantee the success of a project.  If the team members do not use good communication skills the project is in danger of failure.  Whatever modality of communication is being used the communicators need to make sure that they are using clear precise language, keeping the tone professional, friendly, and respectful (Stolovitch, nd).

         I have always been aware that I ramble and if I am emotionally involved in the topic I really can ramble on.  The email in this activity made me aware of how my communications come are viewed.  I will step back and read my emails or other communication to see that I say what I need to in as clear and precise way possible.  Having worked most of my career on the Reservation I tend to be more laid back and informal, I thought that I was doing the right things.  This activity reiterated the importance of documenting all communication and to send a copy of the document to those who would should get it following the protocol established by the team.

References:

 Achong, T., Budrovich, V. (n.d.). Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders. Video Program. Laurette Education.

Stolovitch. (n.d.) Communicating with Stakeholders. Video Program. Laurette Education.

Stolovitch. (n.d.) Project Management Concerns: Communication Strategies and Organizational Culture. Video Program. Laurette Education.