WIKIS - A Venture in Collaboration

I decided to dig a little deeper into wikis - the topic keeps popping up about how useful they are in education, and I haven't known much about them. I really liked this site due to its educational focus. This site seems to have information for all kinds of educational wikis with templates and as stated below no IT help required. That sounds perfect for those instructors who are shy about technology. It also seems that they listened to the feedback of users and created advertisement free wikis for education. (I am not sure they used formative or summative evaluation! - just kidding)

I also learned that they don't allow children under thirteen to register due to the The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act & Rule. http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm

They provide some information on perhaps doing wikis in a global environment. That reminded me of something I learned in a conference last week. There was lawyer in the panel discussion that I was listening to. He said that when online classes get into the international scene, one has to be careful. In some countries, it is illegal for a student to take an online class. That student could be committing a crime, and the online instructor could be committing a crime by teaching to that student. I'll have to look into that more....

The idea of parents contributing to the wikis also appealed to me. That might bridge the generation gap a bit. Or maybe students would feel the parents would be intruding on their turf? It sounds like a great research project.

I copied the following directly from the site. I found it interesting because he has been working overseas, and his blog was rated so highly.

"Jeff Utecht is an educational technology consultant. He has been working in the Asia region since 2005, prior to that he worked in the Middle East and the United States. Currently Jeff is working as a Technology and Learning Coordinator for the International School of Bangkok. In June of 2008 Jeff became an Educational Ambassador for Wetpaint. Jeff regularly shares his thoughts on education and technology on his blog, thethinkingstick.com. His blog was rated one of the top 100 educational blogs by the Online Educational Database. His blog was also featured in the book Reinventing Project-Based Learning as an avenue for “free online professional development”. Feel free to contact Jeff if you need help or have ideas on ways to improve Wetpaint for educators."

Here's a Digital World Conference Web site referenced on the site.

http://www.learningdigital.org/?t=anon


Here's the link to this incredible site, and I learned more about wikis. What I have learned makes me want to learn more.

http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/

Why use wikis in education?

• Wikis encourage collaborative learning and information sharing
• They increase student engagement and participation
• Wikis facilitate communication between teachers and parents and guardians

Why Wetpaint?

• Wetpaint wikis are free, ad-free, and easy to use — no IT help required
• Wetpaint technology gives you the power to control who sees and contributes to your wiki
• Our real world Educator Ambassador, Jeff Utecht, is here to help

Thanks for visiting - Kathy

Open Courseware

One of the things that really blew my mind was when I discovered open courseware. MIT has over 1800 free courses on the Web. Granted the following is listed:

OCW is not an MIT education.
OCW does not grant degrees or certificates.
OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty.
Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.

However, even with that disclaimer, I think it is a great opportunity for people to check out what a college class might be like and pick up whatever is offered. It would be a great opportunity for high school students to see what they might be getting into when and if they decide to go to college. It also looks like MIT OCW is adding items to YouTube, iTunes, and Flickr. In 2007, they reported over 2 million visits as a monthly traffic record. Their site statistics claim 75 million visits by 53 million visitors from virtually every country.

Another advantage would be for students to "test drive" other subjects that they think they might be interested in. This might allow them to narrow down what they might want to major in when they go to college. A lot of my friends ended up going to school longer than they planned because they ended up changing majors. Or they found a particular class just too challenging and decided to try something else to get around that class. (I think chemistry was one of those kind of classes.) These free courses might be valuable as refresher courses for people already with degrees.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

There are others but here are just a few more:

http://ocw.jhsph.edu/

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's OPENCOURSEWARE (OCW) project provides access to content of the School's most popular courses. As challenges to the world's health escalate daily, the School feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public's health and their potential solutions.

http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-open-courseware-projects

This web site offers links to other courses and reminds us that educators have been putting their material on the Web long before MIT was doing it.

I really like the design of the following site. It is one of my all time favorties. For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world.

http://see.stanford.edu/

One more and then I will quit.

http://tinyurl.com/d8qljr

This site gives some background and some good tips about free courseware.

I think it is great that there seems to be a lot of sharing going on. I think that is one of the most marvelous qualities about the Web; it has opened up so many opportunities for the World.

Thanks for visiting - Kathy

NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This has been one of my favorite sites. I usually shy away from sites that are super busy, but I make an exception for this one. I could spend months, if not more, inside this site. I was impressed with the sheer number of interactive educational opportunities available from this site. It is really too hard for me to try to describe this site, so I guess you will have to just check it out for yourselves.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

This next link is under the Education choice on the menu for the above link.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm


Then if you get bored at this site, you can check out NASA's home web site.

http://www.nasa.gov/

Let me know what you think!
Thanks for visiting - Kathy

Rio Salado - An Innovative Online College

I became a fan of Rio Salado when I was researching online programs to see what made them successful. It has become known as "the college within everyone's reach". They have been providing online classes for over thirty years. I especially liked their President, Dr. Linda Thor, after hearing her in a panel discussion at the WCET Conference last November. She told the audience that they have an 85% completion rate. Rio Salado is the largest (in terms of headcount) and most cost-effective Maricopa Community College serving more than 48,000 credit and 12,000 non-credit students annually. The Maricopa Community Colleges comprise 10 colleges, but each college is individually accredited. They comprise the Maricopa County Community College District.The District is one of the largest higher education systems in the world.

Rio Salado's web site claims, "We pioneered online learning while the Internet was still in diapers. RioLearn, our customized online learning platform, was developed specifically for us in partnership with Microsoft and Dell. No other college in the nation has anything like it."

The following are some of their online attributes:

-Classes start every Monday.
-The helpdesk is open 24/7.
- The library is open 24/7.
-They offer free tutoring.
-If you are a resident of Maricopa County, it's $71 per credit.
-All student resources are online.
-They are fully accredited.
-Rio Salado partners with industry to provide customized training to update worker's skills.
-Their robust strategic plan is listed on their web site.
-They have developed an online student union.
-They practice intensive community involvement.
-University Transfer Partnerships in state and out of state allow students to complete their Bachelor's degrees.
-They have a Diversity/Inclusive Center which includes offering learning opportunities to incarcerated populations (men, women, and juveniles). One of the programs at ASPC - Perryvile offers female offenders a "Parenting at a Distance Program" to help them be better parents when they get home.
-By partnering with Pearsons, their textbook savings program has saved their students an average of 51% on textbook costs.
-They operate three radio stations.
-They have a library of podcasts that students can download and listen to.
-There are six testing centers located throughout Maricopa County and proctoring guidelines for students who live outside of the County. There are no charges to have tests sent to you, but you have to pay the proctor if he/she requires it.
-They offer international education.
-They offer dual enrollment to over 50+ high schools.
-They have an online checksheet that tracks each student's progress toward their program goals.



I thought at first that Rio Salado was a totally online college, but they offer delivery methods in online, print-based, in person, mixed media, and hybrid formats. Some of the GED and English classes are offered free. The more I read about Rio Salado, the more impressed I am. One of the things that impresses me the most is their commitment to and involvement with the community. It truly seems like they are trying to reach everyone with an invitation to come and learn no matter what your circumstances are. Their web site discloses that, "Nearly half a million adults in Maricopa County are neither enrolled in school nor have a high school credential according to the 2000 U.S. Census. After completing an ABE program (Adult Basic Education), 85 percent of adult learners were successful at improving their employment, increasing both their skills and pay level."

In think this is a great example of the community colleges being able to address the needs of their communities and offer robust programs to fill the educational needs of those communities and to provide a knowledgeable and skilled workforce.

Check out Rio Salado Online!

http://www.riosalado.edu/Pages/default.aspx

The purpose of this blog is to address the issues involved for students and instructors with disabilities in the area of distance learning. Many of us take for granted that we can see and hear. What would it be like if we wanted to browse the Internet without being able to see or to hear? Would we be banned from taking or teaching online classes if we could not see or hear or had other disabilities?

I came across this topic while doing some research this summer. My awareness and amazement was increased this fall when I was attending a conference on distance learning in another state. One of the presenters on web accessibility was blind. However, I did not know that he was blind until half way through the presentation when he made the announcement himself. I nearly fell out of my chair. He had been using his laptop and speaking to us all during his presentation. After his announcement, he demonstrated a screen reader and discussed ways to make documents that could be used by screen readers. Many other tips were given during the presentation that would help students with disabilities. I would not have known that he was blind without him telling us. I was determined I would get to know more about this topic.

When we speak of distance learning, most of us have heard or have used the phrase, "anywhere, anytime, and for anyone". How can we claim distance education "for anyone" if we do not include students with disabilities?


"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.


There are many issues facing students and instructors with disabilities in higher education. There are many types of disabilities. We will be exploring these issues on this blog and how others have faced them. We will be discussing adaptive technologies and pedagogies that allow those with disabilites to overcome the obstacles given them when seeking higher education.


To get started, please check out the article below for an in depth discussion of this topic. I would like to invite you back to follow along as we explore this important subject.


Online Distance Education - "Anytime, Anywhere" But Not for Everyone


http://people.rit.edu/easi/itd/itdv07n2/axel.htm





--Thank you, Kathy