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Possible Research Topics 6720
Hi all! Here are two of my possible research topics based off the brainstorming activity that we... -
Possible Research Topics 6720
Hi all! Here are two of my possible research topics based off the brainstorming activity that we... -
Improve Economic Opportunities for our Colorado Latino Community
It’s been almost two months since my last entry…yikes! What have I been doing?!? Well, after the completion of my Digital Storytelling class, I took a few long weekends to do some traveling to unplug from technology and spent a little time with my family back east. Fall semester started August 17th and I’ve been in full-force-go-mode ever since! I’m… Read more →
The post Improve Economic Opportunities for our Colorado Latino Community appeared first on Emily S. May.
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Engaging Adolescents: Building Youth Participation in the Arts
Scholarly Critique #1.2 I found this resource through a google search using the key terms “community” “arts” & “engagement”. In an effort to build my own action research agenda, I wanted to gain a better understanding of what research already exists on youth engagement with the arts. Hopefully, this background will allow my research team to clarify our focus to build upon the topic rather than attempt to reiterate what has already been said. This article also gives a helpful overview of some
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Engaging Adolescents: Building Youth Participation in the Arts
Scholarly Critique #1.2 I found this resource through a google search using the key terms “community” “arts” & “engagement”. In an effort to build my own action research agenda, I wanted to gain a better understanding of what research already exists on youth engagement with the arts. Hopefully, this background will allow my research team to clarify our focus to build upon the topic rather than attempt to reiterate what has already been said. This article also gives a helpful overview of some
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Iterative Research Questions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A31_Gspbckn97E6QLuOJbQT5AMsPGtH69kGxNnQKg9U/edit?usp=sharingCycle... -
Iterative Research Questions
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A31_Gspbckn97E6QLuOJbQT5AMsPGtH69kGxNnQKg9U/edit?usp=sharingCycle... -
Connecting Youth and Strengthening Communities
Scholarly Critique #1.1 I found this resource through a Google search while researching statistics related to civic engagement and economic opportunity. This publication supports a main theme of my action research team’s focus: exploring how engaging with art in different spaces can impact civic engagement, and ultimately future economic opportunity for the individual and community. The main objective of this resource is to outline the development of the interactive Opportunity Index
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Connecting Youth and Strengthening Communities
Scholarly Critique #1.1 I found this resource through a Google search while researching statistics related to civic engagement and economic opportunity. This publication supports a main theme of my action research team’s focus: exploring how engaging with art in different spaces can impact civic engagement, and ultimately future economic opportunity for the individual and community. The main objective of this resource is to outline the development of the interactive Opportunity Index website
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Merri-Weathers Research
The Merri-Weathers represent the spectrum of online teachers. Tammie, an early childhood instructor at Colorado Mesa University, designs both online and on-site courses. Jennifer works with K12 as an online instructor, and Alicia is a wanna-be designer/instructor of online higher ed courses. Our mutual interests lie in the variety of components that make up great online learning experiences for our students.Do elearning designs that focus on creativity increase learner motivation?BackgroundTraditionally, instructors design class assignments around pre-determined themes, structure and formats leaving little opportunity for creative expression. With the surplus of multi-media design apps now available, educators might develop assignments that allow students to take a more autonomous and creative means to show understanding. Does this type of design tap into the elusive motivation of the learner?Problem StatementStimulating student motivation to participate in learning has consistently taxed instructors from all educational settings.Participants- K-12 and Higher Ed. online instructors
- K-12 online students
- University distance learners
Methods- Individual student surveys
- Teacher observation surveys
ImpactUltimately, the results might offer insights into what motivates learners thereby improving instructional designs in a variety of ‘classroom’ settings.Does social media inclusion in assignments help students to connect and learn more than traditional online classrooms?BackgroundTraditionally, online classrooms are self-contained. Students must learn to navigate them but once the course is completed they do not have access to information that was shared within the classroom. Currently the majority of students use social media to connect and keep up with current trends on a daily basis. Can including this type of interaction, which will continue to be available after the course ends, help students learn and retain more?Problem StatementStudents lose access to other students and the shared information after the course ends..Participants- Higher Ed. online instructors
- Higher Ed. online students
- University distance learners (in our class)
Methods- Individual student surveys
- Teacher observation surveys
ImpactThe goal is to identify if it is worth it for instructors to include a variety of different social media into their course to engage the learner and give them resources that they can use later on..How does the structure of an online game affect learning?BackgroundSome games used in the classroom are prefaced as fun while others are prefaced as educational. Most games used in the education field are meant to teach the students about a concept or idea. Teachers often present the games as educational and students seem to immediately disengage from it. Perhaps if teachers prefaced the game as a reward or just for fun game the students would be more motivated and actually learn more from it.Problem StatementStudents learn more from games perceived as “fun” rather than games perceived as “educational.Participants- K-12 and Higher Ed. online instructors
- K-12 online students
- University distance learners
Methods- Individual student surveys
- Teacher observation surveys
ImpactUltimately, the results might offer insights into what types of games help students learn more about any given subject. -
Engaging with Art: Identity, Community, and Opportunity
Team Ziggy Stardust is comprised of Wesley Akers, Susannah Simmons, and La Dawna Minnis, based upon a common curiosity for and appreciation of public art. After initially connecting on social media, we soon found that although we have different professional backgrounds and are in different ILT tracks our common passion for creative endeavors united our efforts. Each one of our diverse research topics shares a common thread of designing, creating, or engaging with art; moreover, the impact on
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Engaging with Art: Identity, Community, and Opportunity
Team Ziggy Stardust is comprised of Wesley Akers, Susannah Simmons, and La Dawna Minnis, based upon a common curiosity for and appreciation of public art. After initially connecting on social media, we soon found that although we have different professional backgrounds and are in different ILT tracks our common passion for creative endeavors united our efforts. Each one of our diverse research topics shares a common thread of designing, creating, or engaging with art; moreover, the impact on
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My First Twitter Experience Changed The Way I Learn Forever
Games for Change @G4C Summer - the time of year where I always try to cram six months worth of stuff into three. There’s something about it, maybe it’s the longer days due to the summer solstice, or maybe it’s my way of making up for all of those lazy summers I had when I was a kid sleeping until noon. Whatever the case, in the summer of 2015, I decided to begin my journey as a graduate student at CU Denver in an intensive eight week course, INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling, that changed the way I think about education and the potential of social learning.
My first term as a graduate student in Information and Learning Technologies & Adult Learning, I knew very little about social media platforms and pedagogy of social learning. I had been lurking on Facebook for about a year, my Google + profile was full of cobwebs, and I just started to learn how to use Twitter. As a fledgling Twitter newb, I decided to jump into a Twitter chat to begin to spread my wings. My first tweet chat was with #EdGameChat with the focus of digital games in the classroom and Greg Toppo to promote his book The Game Believes In You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter. I have strong interest in “gamification” and educational games as I have a background in game development. As the Twitter discussion began, it was a little overwhelming. The questions were asked by the discussion moderator and then all the answers would fly by before I could even finish reading the question. I kept having to scroll up and down in the browser to look at the participators responses and engage based on that. I think I managed to come up with a couple of good replies by the time the rest of the discussion was three questions ahead of me.
I stumbled through my first Tweet chat, I gained several new followers and several others followed me. Some of the people I followed were key figures in games ed. By following them I feel as though I am “in the know” when it comes to things regarding games in education. All I need to do is open up the Twitter app on my mobile device and read through the daily Tweets. If I choose to, I can engage in chat with others in #EdGameChat to promote collaboration and social learning. This includes authors of pedagogical texts and professors at renowned universities. To me, this is the most powerful, motivating, and enlightening learning experience I have ever engaged.
Throughout the remainder of the summer semester, I was able to engage with several others in the affinity group ds106, which served as the primary home for the digital storytelling course. I was also able to engage with all of my classmates in many meaningful ways on Twitter and follow their educational journeys over the course of eight weeks. In fact, I continue to engage with my colleagues at UC Denver through Twitter. I can follow what they are doing in other classes, and coordinate with them to take classes together in the future, or see what they are up to in their professional work. In essence, through the use of simple 140 character communiques and links, I have established some basic networks and relationships to promote social learning beyond the confines of a school, a classroom, and the LMS.
The ease of access and simplicity of the platform makes Twitter easy to engage throughout the day - waiting in line, uploading or downloading files, in between meetings, etc. This leads to routine behaviors and ways of being that enable life long learning that is current, relevant, and ever-changing based on trends and shared knowledge. Although I think there are many great platforms for social learning, Twitter, in particular, has made me a believer in the power of social learning and behaviors that lead to rich online experiences. It has changed my life. -
Another Autumn
Summer funLong shadows, cooler nights and course introductions all signals of summer's end. As I pen this introduction, I'm considering my journey over the past year. What a trip it has been!Last August, I entered the ILT program as an unemployed sales... -
Ready, Set, Go!
Well hello there! After a brief (but much needed!) break, I am ready to dive into my last semester with CU Denver's INTE program. For those whom I haven't yet met, my name is La Dawna, and I am an art educator, a technology enthusiast, an avid player of video games, nature lover, coffee addict, and cat person. This photo is me with my cat Harley, taken a few years ago. Our expressions make this one of my favorite photos! My undergraduate work was in art education, and I recently left my -
Ready, Set, Go!
Well hello there! After a brief (but much needed!) break, I am ready to dive into my last semester with CU Denver's INTE program. For those whom I haven't yet met, my name is La Dawna, and I am an art educator, a technology enthusiast, an avid player of video games, nature lover, coffee addict, and cat person. This photo is me with my cat Harley, taken a few years ago. Our expressions make this one of my favorite photos! My undergraduate work was in art education, and I recently left my
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Google Classroom Home Screen Organization from #EdTechVanguard
If you are like me and have several classes set up in Google Classroom, it’s really convenient to have your Home/Dashboard set up in a way that makes sense to you. For me, I like to have my class cards go in chronological order of my school day (Periods 1-7). The problem with this is […]
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Digital Storytelling Portfolio
Here is a link to the Digital Storytelling Portfolio, my last assignment of this course.It highlights some of my favorite pieces from this quick 8-week semester.https://storify.com/mitchellwoll/digital-storytelling-portfolioThanks for following! -
INTE 5340: Learning with Digital Stories – Final Portfolio
Why is it important to tell stories?My final portfolio for INTE 5340 showcases a number of digital stories or critiques created throughout the term with an emphasis on Corporate eLearning. Each of my assignments was posted on this blog and shared via T... -
INTE 5340 Learning with Digital Stories: Final Reflection
Life and Learning through Digital StoriesAfter seven intense weeks in an online, social media whirlwind Professor Remi Holden’s INTE 5340 Learning with Digital Stories class at the University of Colorado Denver is coming to a close. But before I can take a much needed breather, it’s time to reflect on my experiences throughout the course. To finish, I am including one last response to accompany my final portfolio. I will discuss the following topics:· My understanding of new literacies, social practice, and digital storytelling· My experience with digital storytelling and DS106· Applying my learning to corporate eLearningUnderstanding new literacies, social practice, and digital storytellingI started this class with a feeling of frustration. Right out of the gate, I had a week to complete half a dozen assignments and read a textbook chapter on some abstract concepts related to redefining the word literacy. I admit my initial impression was not a good one. The assignments felt like trivial busy work and the text seemed irrelevant to eLearning in general. In addition, everything we did needed to be published and shared via social media which is still a little outside of my comfort zone. I had experience utilizing Facebook, LinkedIn, and some blogs but I’m more of the passive observer rather than active participant. Having everything accelerated into an eight week period didn’t help my attitude either, especially with the busy work and home schedules I had to manage at the same time. What I did not realize at the beginning was that the class and its underlying principles would come full circle by the end of the course.I know now that the key to this course was changing the mindset and the way we think about learning. Redefining literacy was a big part of that and a necessary first step. It’s important to know that literacy extends beyond just the ability to read and write. It encompasses different mediums including various technologies and forms of social media, which were highlighted in this course. Once that definition is understood, we can then see how various groups or individuals exercise those literacies in everyday life. I think this is a major component of social theory. And within social theory we can examine two things: 1) how social learning takes place and 2) how social learning is put into practice.The most interesting concept, for me though, was learning about the paradigm shift from pushing curriculum onto students to having students pull information based on their own desired learning trajectories. I believe this shift is a long time in the making but today’s new technological literacies have accelerated the shift. The web makes it possible for people to have information at their fingertips and learn what they want to learn. And now with Web 2.0 and the ability to collaborate across the internet, the student has the ability to become the teacher. Therefore, within this learning ecosystem, I can get some ideas of how to implement social learning practices into my professional learning career.As for digital storytelling? That’s the fun byproduct of new literacies.Digital Storytelling and DS106In my opinion, nothing exemplifies new literacies more than DS106. I think the site and the movement altogether is incredible. I was immediately interested. I love creative projects and the fact that the site is sustained through the contributions of others. What made me uncomfortable was the social media aspect – which I mentioned earlier. Many of the assignments require sharing either on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media sites. Again, I’m more of a passive observer on social media than an active participator.The number of assignments to complete each week was a little overwhelming. But for the DS106 assignments, I found the variety to be very intriguing. The daily creates and assignment bank projects included a vast number of different mediums illustrating the breadth of new literacies within technology. This helped me realize a number of things. First, there are quite a few online tools available and I have very little experience with any of them. It amazes me that, today, the average internet user has the ability to do web design, audio, video, and a number of other capabilities. For one assignment I needed to create my own maze but after a simple google search I quickly found a number of online tools that made the task fairly easy. Second, I found myself gravitating toward certain mediums. Audio, video, and photography are not really my thing. I would much rather do design, web, and writing assignments and generally sought those out for weekly projects. What ultimately made these assignments intriguing was the framework in which they were presented. I believe it was the text that mentioned that creativity requires restraints – you can’t just tell someone to go into a room and “be creative”. The framework starts the thought process but the ambiguity (a common attribute throughout the course) enabled the creativity.When it came to critiquing digital stories, it was interesting to note that stories are everywhere. At first, I thought that digital storytelling would naturally come in the form of a video, such as a montage, documentary, or trailer. In reality, a story can be told in many different forms. When it came to finding digital stories to critique within our focal themes, I found myself going to elearningindustry.com quite often and found a number of great resources mixed in and around the publications. I think it was altogether a worthwhile practice. Anytime you can break something down into its smallest parts and take a critical view, a world of insight is opened up.Apply my learning to corporate eLearningCorporate eLearning has been a common theme for me throughout my masters studies. I considered choosing a different area of focus for digital storytelling but ultimately I wanted all of my efforts in school to contribute to my professional pursuits. So I again chose corporate eLearning. I am currently loosely affiliated with our enablement/training team at work and am looking for a full time position. I’m definitely glad I kept the theme for this course.I’m excited to apply the learning from this class to my professional life. The biggest take-away is new perspective on eLearning. I originally though eLearning was solely comprised of self-paced learning modules and online courses. But that is just one component. Understanding the paradigm shift from push to pull has opened my eyes and given me a number of ideas of how to create an ecosystem at work where employees can pull the information needed to perform their work. It has also helped me realize that a “pull” environment is already in place but the lack of information and access has made the learning experience inefficient and cumbersome. Social learning is already taking place to some degree as employees often rely on tribal knowledge to get ramped up. And, those that work within the sales department at my company are those that benefit most from pull-based learning.There is a major opportunity that I see and the potential to maximize learning or “enablement” as we call it is great. I believe it starts with understanding the current social learning practices and expounding upon them to make a greater learning experience.
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A Community of Practice
A Final Reflection on INTE 5340
I am in my first year as a graduate student, and Learning With Digital Stories was the fourth course I've taken. It has been very interesting being a graduate student - it is unlike any other formal 'student' experience I have had. Here is what I have noticed, a model let's say:- I'm expected to learn much of the technical aspects of media production myself.
- The professor isn't going to tell me how I'm doing. He or she is more likely to help me see what I am doing, and what I could do further.
- The production of work isn't as important as the critical stance I take in producing the work.
- I am expected to critique or comment on the work of my peers. The professor will model this activity for us in various ways.
- I am expected to collaborate with my peers; respond to their critiques and comments on my work, provide encouragement and feedback, and honor my commitments to a group.
- In these ways I become a model and inspiration for my peers, and they for me.
I learn very quickly, I'm very efficient at it. I've found that the best approach is to fling myself at the work and see what happens. I also employ what I call The Committee of Sleep (which I made a video about for my last course). As an older student who is also an experienced teacher, I have come to appreciate the role I can play as a leader among my peers. I'm not voluble in that role, but the right gesture at the right time can mean the world. So I pick up on the modeling that the professors do, and then keep in mind that my communication with peers is modeling too. (A quick example: when deciding whose work to respond to, I will sometimes look for the student who seems to not be getting a lot of attention and give him or her some comment love.)
My main contribution to this course was in the work product. Like the disc jockey on the radio who has no idea whether anyone is listening, I created my media projects and posted them on my blog and made announcements on Twitter. Anyone who clicked the link and took a look would be rewarded with a multi-faceted project that tried to address the assignment at many levels simultaneously. This is my favorite kind of work, and in this class consisted of taking 'storytelling' seriously and creating traditional and not-so-traditional stories-within-stories, or self-referential stories, or interwoven narratives, or even just a title that was a tiny story. Even my contention that physics is 'story' is heterodox (or eccentric - you decide).
As much as I really enjoyed the media assignments and Twitter camaraderie, my greatest accomplishment in this course was understanding New Literacies. I have copied below a paragraph from each of several weekly Reflections in this course. I think these paragraphs demonstrate a progression in my understanding, and also demonstrate a consistency in what occupies my mind, and how I hope to apply my graduate work in my life.- As the school year winds down, my thoughts turn to next year. I want to pursue this idea I have of using story to teach physics - specifically, having the students express physics in their own stories. By reading Lankshear & Knobel on literacy, I think that I may gain a broader perspective on physics-as-story, something along the lines of a physics literacy. (Week 2)
- Thinking more about next year, I am beginning to understand that teaching my students to use story to understand physics is going to be a multiple-literacies experience. When I imagine what I would like them to do, I see primarily the technical practices: using equations, graphs, diagrams, and charts as parts of a certain way of explaining; using online sites for finding and accessing texts, images, audio and video files, simulations, and models; and using other digital tools for creating presentation material, software like Photoshop and hardware like Smart Boards. In other words, I imagine what it is that I already do, the ways in which I am literate, and how I can model these technical practices for my students. (Week 3)
- I'm thinking again about the next school year, and about all the instructional materials I'm constantly designing and tinkering with. Of course, this is remix as well. I steal shamelessly from the Internet and from my fellow teachers. I watch how students respond, and re-remix accordingly. The concept of remix allows me to see more clearly how my students, using remix techniques, could improve their ability to "speak" or "write" physics , and I'm eager to try some ideas. I'll be remixing, of course, from materials that already work for me. (Week 4)
- Here's a question - a lot is written about learning and learners and communities of learners, and almost nothing is written about teaching. In these communities of learners, whether digital and online or not, who are the teachers? And more importantly, who qualifies as an engaging and effective teacher? Exploring this question has been part of my focal theme, not just this semester but for decades throughout my teaching career. In my work this semester, I am acutely aware of being both a learner and a teacher. The learning is in mastering a technique or tool to achieve an end product. The end product, for me, is always an attempt to teach, either overtly or covertly. L&K left a hint in Chapter 7 where they mention mentoring (p. 221), and I hope they enlarge upon this in Chapter 8. (Week 6)
- It was exciting to read Lankshear & Knobel's final chapter. It left me with a lot to think about, not just concerning different approaches to literacy and learning, but also concerning L&K's language and concepts as tools for analyzing a learning environment. In other words, I'm beginning to shift my focus from the social phenomenon itself to how a social phenomenon can be analyzed. As I pointed out in Week 1, I've never studied sociology, so this has been my first exposure to a sociological study of any social practice. I'm only just now getting a feel for how sociologists see and study the world, and how I, in my small way, could do the same. (Week 7)
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Final Course Reflection and ePorfolio
My learning process during this course was a constant adaptation to meet the requirement of working in an intense collaborative learning community. I forced myself to get outside my comfort zone. I experienced frustration, anxiety, and joy when learning or... Continue Reading →
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Final Course Reflection and ePorfolio
My learning process during this course was a constant adaptation to meet the requirement of working in an intense collaborative learning community. I forced myself to get outside my comfort zone. I experienced frustration, anxiety, and joy when learning or exchanging with others in a productive experience. I have a better notion of my strengths […] -
Final Reflections on Storytelling
I can't believe summer is almost over already. I'm simultaneously excited about starting my final semester with CU Denver and also a little sad that it seems to be going by so quickly. This summer, digital storytelling made a huge impact on me as a learner, as an instructor, and in built a greater understanding of my own philosophy of education and pedagogy. As a learner in digital storytelling, I learned through the development of my social and writing practices. I've never managed a blog -
Final Reflections on Storytelling
I can't believe summer is almost over already. I'm simultaneously excited about starting my final semester with CU Denver and also a little sad that it seems to be going by so quickly. This summer, digital storytelling made a huge impact on me as a learner, as an instructor, and in built a greater understanding of my own philosophy of education and pedagogy. As a learner in digital storytelling, I learned through the development of my social and writing practices. I've never managed a blog -
Why Tell Stories?
Link to Final Portfolio: https://kumu.io/joneill/truth-in-absurdity-final-project“Just as the brain... -
Why Tell Stories?
Link to Final Portfolio: https://kumu.io/joneill/truth-in-absurdity-final-project“Just as the brain...
