Experimenting with MOOC's

I have just finished my first adventure in teaching a MOOC! This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was hosted by the learn.canvas network (https://learn.canvas.net) and was entitled "Becoming a Dynamic Educator." (BADE13)

I was motivated to do this because I wanted to engage our teacher candidates hear at BGSU in a conversation about how the enterprise of education is changing, due to our digitally connected world, and wanted a platform that would allow hundreds to join together without tuition fees or conflicting class schedules interfering.

The amazing thing is that more than 1,000 interested persons signed up (about 60 being from BGSU) and we (those who could participate for the 8 weeks...about 100 or so) had a very fun time exchanging ideas. I now have new colleagues from all over the world to challenge me and support me as I try to figure out these contemporary models of learning.  Sweet!

Artifact Collection

In an attempt to capture and share the many documents, pictures, videos, presentations, glogs and blogs we have collectively created and utilized over the past weeks, I am overwhelmed by the scope of work. Our faculty and TEA fellows have been busy!

Currently, I have begun a Google site to house some of the tech workshop information, and provide email and blog links for everyone. See https://sites.google.com/site/irexteatechnology/ for the beginning of this.

We have LOTS of video/images that I will be burning to DVDs this week for distribution. More will be shared via Vimeo.

We also have all of our class documents on a DropBox area at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/avsz3ry18s9o2wu/FD3_eD7lHC I will also be sharing this to copy from a flash drive.

What else do we need to assemble and distribute?

International Challenge

My time with the IREX TEA fellows is both exhilarating and exhausting! They are challenging me about my assumptions and my directions. Looks like I will be taking some trips this year and next to visit their countries (all 17?), to learn about their schools and classrooms and how digital technologies are impacting teaching and learning their. Mery expects me to write a book about this...so I guess I better start making plans. Anyone want to help?

Being a Blogger

Since I have been encouraging my IREX TEA international teachers to post in their blogs, I thought they needed me to be a good example.

Though I am exhausted from all the extra activities inherent in directing the Center of Excellence for 21st Century Educator Preparation AND providing technology workshops during the 6-week IREX TEA fellows visit, I am energized. These are wonderful opportunities to think and grow as educators and I will miss these people when they go back to their 17 countries.

I hope we will continue our connections via our Facebook, blogs, and wikis. :)

Digi Texts vs. Digi Resources

Our Digital Texts Learning Community is now discussing a name change. We have become increasingly aware that th "textbook" descriptor of what we are reviewing (digital materials for K-12) excludes much of the digital content that we find progressive and appealing. However, our current classrooms ( both K-12 and university) seem to still have a desire for the textbook model for arranging materials for study.

Added to this dilemma is the opportunity to author one's own collections....these might take the form of a digital book ( ePub, PDF, etc.), but these might also be a website or LMS module of resources. Of course, creating your own unique set of digital materials takes time and constant updating, so I think there will be a market for professionally published collections (textbooks?) for quite some time...who I'll capture the power of all that our hyperlinked world can provide, creating digital collections that are vibrant, interactive, meaningful, and personalizable....that remains to be seen.

Check out our explorations at
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/edhd/xep/dtlc.html

Back from FETC

I have just returned from a great time at the FETC 2013 conference. There are some awesome K-12 teachers and administrators out there, doing great things for their students. I was inspired and tired at the same time.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm getting too old to keep up with all the changes that are coming to education. So many ways to communicate, collaborate, create, and learn. BUT...these changes also invigorate and excite me...so I guess I'll just keep exploring.

Closer to Full Professor

I just had my official meeting with the dean and my school director and I am being recommended by my college to be promoted to the rank of full professor! Of course, this won't be official until May, still several more layers of protocols to get through, but I am feeling relieved and excited.

For those unfamiliar with this (shall I say antiquated?) process, we tenure and tenure-track profs spend decades trying to prove our worth in teaching, scholarship and service...creating massive PAPER giant notebooks supporting our case. Yearly reviews by department, college and university committees and administrators document the journey...

And I might (in May) be called Professor Banister.

The learning community members are making their blogs...and everyone is ignoring me! Apparently, I'm not that interesting. :)

Anyway, we are discussing what criteria we are using to evaluate digital texts for K-12 students. here are my initial thoughts:

• Content Accuracy
• Aligned to Content Standards
• Viewpoint/perspective/bias
• Age-appropriate
• Pedagogically sound
• Interactivity (audio, add notes, highlight, etc.)
• Takes advantage of the digital tools related to content
• Inquiry based/constructivist
• Promotes creativity/problem solving/ P21
• Motivation (games, points, etc.)
• Addresses diverse learning styles/abilities (differentiation, individualize)
• Teacher-ready materials (assessments, lesson plans, resources)
• User Friendly
• Stable Interface/Smooth Navigation

Since I am requiring all the members of our Digital Texts Learning Community to host a blog about their experiences in exploring K-12 digital textbooks for their academic content areas and grade bands, I decided I needed to revisit my blog. 

Our work as university teacher education faculty continues to become increasingly complex. Some days, I'm not sure exactly what priority to focus upon, as they seem to be at odds. For example, we have been asked to increase our class sizes (both online and face-to-face), reduce part time costs, not replace faculty lines of those resigning or retiring, increase enrollment,retain students, and acquire more grant funds. So I wonder, what is most important?

I am enjoying directing the Center of Excellence for 21st Century Educator Preparation, though. I have been given the opportunity to explore innovations such as digital texts and iPads in K-12 classrooms. The Interactive Whiteboard Olympics was awesome and watching the BGSU social studies sophomores implementing mobile technologies this semester is cool.  Guess I can't complain...