Learning Online

Learning Online is such a HUGE topic and one that could span an entire semester (in fact it does in EDTEC 448!). However, we're going to take a couple of ours tonight to discuss this topic and all that we need to think about in order to make it a success. First, I have a short video clip for you to view just to get you thinking! Go to this blog and click play on the short video at the top. Then, scroll down to read the comments that people posted. How does this video clip shift your thinking about using WebQuests/NetQuests or other types of learning experiences on the Internet? What about multimedia in general? Does being able to "click" on text change things for students? As quoted in our Jonassen text, Morrison &Morgan (1999), state, "'We do not learn much from looking at a model - we learn a lot more from building the model and from manipulating it'". Does being able to click on something qualify as manipulating it? How?

In addition, we also need to think about how we will get our students online (conveniently) and what our students need to know in order to be successful with the online learning experience. There are many ways to do this, but I'd like to focus on three different methods of organizing online learning experiences. Tonight, we'll look at the following: a Word document, www.weebly.com, and www.wikispaces.com. Depending on your students and the type of learning experience, you could choose one of these tools.

Here are a few questions I want you to think about when planning online learning experiences:

1. What do your students need to know before going online?
   2. How will you get your students to "dig deeper" for online content?
   3. How do we get the students to further than, "But I found it on the Internet"?
   4. How do you teach them to search for information online? Visit here first.
   5. How do you teach them to evaluate the information they find online? Visit here first. Then, visit here.

Finally, to really get you thinking, here's what's coming with technology...Talk about being "clickable"!!