Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Educ 639: Most Important Point
The most important trend that I found from my interview was the integration of social networks into their distance education courses. This distance education instructor used the social network facebook to communicate with her students. Facebook was also used in this instructors online course as a means to have the students further collaborations among themselves for course material. This point is important because in todays society there is always a need to incorporate various forms of technology into distance education programs. The one factor that seperates distance education from a traditional classroom is the distance factor. Therefore social networks offer the ability to enhance the communications and make a more positive classroom environment. This did not change my view on distance education because I too feel that social networks can have a positive effect on distance education and can be incorporated into distance education courses in a variety of ways. The only part was a little muddy was a better description or example of how the social network facebook can be used in an online course beyond posts and chatting. Overall social networks as an important trend in distance education is a great point to help better the distance education experience.
Educ 633: Gagnes Nine Steps of Instruction Theory
My chosen theory is Gagne’s Nine Steps of Instruction. The nine steps that he outlined to effect learning are as follows: 1. Gain Attention. 2. Inform Learner of Objective. 3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Knowledge. 4. Present the Material. 5. Provide Guidance for Learning. 6. Elicit Performance. 7. Provide Feedback. 8. Assess Performance. 9. Enhance Retention and Transfer. The theory establishes 9 steps that are sequential in order to help establish a positive learning environment for both the instructor and the student.
The strengths for this theory would be that it is very detailed. Each steps help to establish a framework for education that can benefit all parties in the learning environment. The steps could assist an instructor with developing their instruction. This could be particularly helpful when in kindergarten when schools are using the new Common Core State Standards. These steps would allow the teachers to have an additional support document to help develop activities to fit with their pacing guides. The pacing guides for each subject area are used as an overview for all standards and objectives that must be taught, however these steps would help to dissect the standards further and turn them into concrete lessons and activities that would help to thoroughly enhance the students learning.
The weakness for this theory at the kindergarten level would be that it does not give to flexibility. Too often lessons at the kindergarten grade level are short mini lessons that are taught during whole group, small group and one-on-one instruction. Therefore these nine steps would almost be too overbearing on time due to the transition times that occur throughout the daily schedule. Another weakness could be that these steps are designed in a particular order and some of them may need to be skipped or rearranged to accommodate the needs of a particular student, group of students or activity.
This theory can be applied in distance education course development by myself, as the instructor, being able to take these steps and help design my objectives and assignments. The big factor of distance limits professor and student interactions, so these steps would allow for the instructor to help develop a course where students take their prior knowledge, gain upon it, and are able to assess their performance while giving them reinforcement as well.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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