I am teaching a course of program development for the first time in ten years. In the past students in this course were expected to create workshops and printed materials for children, youth and families. We barely introduced the idea of web-based material and the tools to create web-based programming was complicated and limited..... this semester I am focusing directly on developing students skills in putting together the tools of Web 2.0 with the skills of working with families.
The challenge in this course is that I am trying to teach three domains of knowledge and then trying to help them put this together.
The three domains are:
learning specific information technology tools that can be used to teach,
learning how to think about elearning, and
learning about designing programs for families.
Here is what I am teaching in each of these areas.
Information technology tools
1. Tools to find, save and organize scientific research
2. Tools to find, save and organize useful web-based information
3. Tools to create web-based content (mostly text this time)
4. Tools to teach in elearning environments.
(I have posted the specific tools I am using here.)
eLearning topics & issues
effective web design
online collaboration
monitoring issues and information of interest to families
Learning 2.0 design
Basic Program Development
Needs assessment of a target audience
Translating research into practical information
creating teaching activities
recruiting and engaging clients into programs
evaluating the effectiveness of programs
This is a lot of information to put together in a single course and I am not sure I have the timing and sequence of these different domains put together in the right sequence.
7 comments:
Hi Dr. Hughes!
You are writing about our class on your blog- how interesting! I was looking up the link to the blog to show my husband.
The course has been interesting so far, and I know that I will acquire a lot of new skills and understandings. It's interesting to read your reflections as an instructor. Good teaching grows from meaningful reflection on positive and negative experiences. Thanks for allowing us to learn about teaching in higher ed through your reflection.
See you Thursday.
Thanks for your note Rebecca. Yes, I use the blog partly to reflect on the work and hopefully to allow others to see what some of the challenges are in doing this work as it goes forward.
You will also see my suggestions to others at the U of Illinois about the importance of these types of efforts for the institution. This has been a way for me to have a public forum on this topic. I don't get much discussion in the blog from other colleagues, but I don't get emails and other communications about these issues.
Hi Dr. Huges!
The class and learning new technical skills have been very helpful. After the firtst class, I resumed using Refworks, which I stopped using in my first year here. Now, as my year in the program goes high, 3rd year now, I have been feeling that I need some systematic tool to organiztaion literature I am looking at. Actually I spent some time to organize the literature I have obtained forgetting there is this tool. I am so happy to be reminded of and taught the usefulness of Refworks. I also believe other tools will help me to deepen my understanding in my interest area. As you shared today, we really need to be aware of what the public is thinking and discussing. Especially, in social work, that is the way we can narrow the research and practice gap. I guess it is the same case for other disciplines, too.
Thank you for letting us be exposed to very helpful and useful tools. I expect alll of us utilize these in a productive way.
I really appreciate this chance thinking that otherwise, I will barely have any chance to be more technically updated. :)
Dr. Hughes,
This class is a good approach to elearning. The class will be useful for future reference indeed. Not only that students learn how to search and share their sources through RefWorks, through this class, students will be able to develop their own program of interest for professional as well as personal reasons!
Hope everything will go well in class this semester. I'm looking forward for the assignments ^_^
Hi Dr. Hughes!
I have just lost what I wrote up for comments. It was a very long comment..so..kind of frustrated now.
Basically, what I wanted to say was I really appreciate this chance to be exposed to new tools. I believe that these will help us to be more efficient and effective in our research.
Thank you again!
Hi Dr. Hughes!
I have just lost what I wrote up for comments. It was a very long comment..so..kind of frustrated now.
Basically, what I wanted to say was I really appreciate this chance to be exposed to new tools. I believe that these will help us to be more efficient and effective in our research.
Thank you again!
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