Sunday, March 25, 2007

Bib Part 2

This was in seperate file. Forgot to upload it.

Sherer, Pamela. Timothy Shea, Eric Kristensen. “Online Communities of Practice: A Catalyst for Faculty Development.” Innovative Higher Education. 27.3 (2003). 183-194.

This article reiterates a concept that I am seeing as I read more articles and as I gain personal experience through my regular work of creating communities. The concept that these online communities, must first begin offline in real situations where relationships are developed. It also breaks down what faculty learning communities tend to focus on. Student/Classroom issues, faculty self-development (portfolios, technology training), and school wide focus (things designed to improve the overall campus). I’ve realized it’s important to not limit my online community to one topic or idea, such as lesson sharing. But seeing it as a multi sectioned piece in which different aspects of professional development can be sampled by the community.

Salomon, Kenneth. “Copyright Considerations in Distance Education and Technology-Mediated Instruction.” DOW-LOHNES & Alberstson, PLLC. 5 Jul. 2000.

This is a document better read by a school’s lawyer then a English teacher. It’s a white paper written to “explain” the laws on the books in regards to copyright issues and how they affect colleges. It takes the stunningly confusing text of the laws and explains them in the mostly confusing text of lawyerese. This document could be very helpful to refer back to as I find specific examples or questions about copyright issues. The date on it concerns me as I am sure the laws have changed somewhat.

Ascough, Richard. “Designing for Online Distance Education: Putting Pedagogy before Technology.” Teaching Theology and Religion. 5.1 (2002). 17-29.

I choose a couple of articles about online pedagogy to look for ways in which learning is different or structured online versus real world. This article doesn’t go in too deep or give me anything new that I haven’t read in previous articles, but it does help me to see what some of my problems might be down the line. It cites a study that shows that people remember 70% of what they discuss with others. It then uses this to discuss the importance of having a good online discussion. It seems that most of the learning that is going online is discussion based, which is going to be a problem with busy adjuncts, teaching 5 classes at two different colleges. I want to encourage online discussion, but it hasn’t gone over so well in the past on campus and it seems time consuming.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Annotated Bib Part 1

Axelson, Mary. “Education as Commodity” Electronic School.com. Jun. 2001. .

This article raises some examples and issues of what is happening when it comes to the rights for the materials that teachers are producing for their classes, both online and brick and mortar. It raises issues that I had not yet considered such as how far do you go to say who owns what and who gets paid for what. A quote from Hal Resnick who works for a company that designs teacher-training materials sums up the issues in this article quite nicely, “Where would it end? Do you throw money into a kitty when somebody opens their mouth at a meeting?” (Axelson 31)

Ubell Robert. “Who Owns What? Unbundling Web Course Property Rights.” Educase Quarterly 1 NOV 2001.

The concept of “unbundling” when it comes to who owns what for a class helps to break down the larger idea of who owns what into a smaller one. Unbundling was first mentioned by a consortium put together by several universities in California and New York. The idea is that when something is created for a classroom that it has many different uses and parts and how those parts are being used determines who owns them.

Twigg Carol. “Who owns Online Courses and Course Materials? Intellectual Property Policies for a New Learning Environment.” The National Center for Academic Transformation. 2000. .

This was an article that grew out of a symposium in Florida where participants discussed and debated different area when it came to how online materials are being used on campuses and who owns them. The article presents four different case studies revolving around different issues facing creating online courses. Each case study is presented and at the end comments and questions are given. It also looks at two big questions, are colleges sitting on a goldmine when it comes to online classes and is it possible for a teacher to create an online class and then have their job eliminated because the class can be taught by anyone.

Ruth, Lester. “Converting My Course Converted ME: How Reinventing an On-Campus Course for an Online Environment Reinvigorated My Teaching.” Teaching Theology and Religion 9.4 (2006) : 234-242

This is an article written by a teacher at a theological seminary and he discusses how when he was forced to teach his pastoral liturgy class online it changed how he thought about teaching. He began to look at his lessons as modules instead of topics he wanted to lecture about. The online portion of the class also forced him away from the safe way he taught the class before, by lecturing and the student’s taking objective tests. Since he couldn’t lecture in an online environment, he worked to discover what should lead into what and how students learn a concept.


Holzer, Elie. “Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Asynchronous Electronic Environment: Challenges, Opportunities and Preliminary Insights from Practice.” Education Media International. 41.1 (2004) 81-89

This article looks at a teacher’s experience in creating an online class for graduate students studying professional development. The teacher found that the students began to model the same line of questioning the teacher was taking. Early on in the process the teacher of would ask probing questions of the students responses. This probing aspect began to appear after the students had posted essentially their rough drafts of data they had been collecting during an observation. The writer felt that the student’s comments changed in an online environment from judging the work of their peers to offering suggestions for revision and improvement. None of this seems shocking to me. Perhaps the culture of the school was highly competitive and this was a new thing, but it seems to me that students (in general) are always offering critique and advice to their peers on how to improve their writing.

Solomon, Gwen. “E-Communications 101.” Technology & Learning. June 2004. Techlearning.com

This is truly a 101 guide to online communications. It reads as if it was published in 1997 as opposed to 2004. The guide is filled with “insightful” comments like “Keep your emails short.” Not an effective article for how to create anything innovative when it comes to connecting faculty on a campus. It would make a good handout for people who are just starting to work online or have no idea how the online world functions.

Salpeter, Judy. “Professional Development: 21st Century Models” Technology & Learning. 24.1 (2003)

This article has many interesting examples, suggestions, and lessons from various online professional development sources. As with other articles I am finding, they seem to show that online professional development is not being done by the school, but by outside companies coming in with pre-packaged online development systems. I think the most important thing I have learned from this is “Don’t rush online learning.” I tend to want to show the adjuncts something once online and expect them to fall in love with it.