TxDLA2006-The Future’s So Bright

Skie expresses his appreciation to those folks that made TxDLA2006 a FANTASTIC experience!

• Skie’s Penultimate Podcast! 

Home and recovering from this year’s conference. It was incredible! There is so much to reflect on and process. Too much for tonight so I will wait until I am a little more awake and refreshed. However, I must at least pass on that this is one of the most incredible groups of people and professionals I have ever had the pleasure and honor of getting to know! Yeah TxDLA members! I am sure I will have much more to say (those that know me know I will ) but sleep is calling me.

Chris

 

TxDLA Distance Learning Teacher of the Year: “Hear pearls of wisdom from the best of the best…..”

Alan and Paul from BC: “So, you thought TxDLA was only for Texans?  Guess again, my distance learning neophyte.  Cunuck cunuck!”

Allison Pierce: “Piano concerto and much more……88 keys and more.”

Carolyn and Kevin: “Who are THE people in the history of Texas distance learning?  Click here and find out.”

Double D’s: “Who attends TxDLA?  Go ask your sister!”

Howie Durango Colorado: “You want to know why people from the mile high state come to Texas?  Don’t ask…..LISTEN!”

Tony: “So, what did you do for dinner last night?  Tony solved a murder!”

Skie VanDerKampf has been attending TxDLA conferences for the past five years.  He is not affiliated with any political wingers nor is he out to promote anyone’s agenda.  He is reporting the truth as told to him by those who are in the trenches, those who are not only the movers and the shakers but the creators.  What he is is simply a man who seeks the truth, and that truth is this: the Texas Distance Learning Association is the ultimate resource in Texas distance learning whether you are a practitioner in the area of Vocational/Technical, Government/Military, Higher Education, Healthcare/Telemedicine, Corporate/Private Sector, or K-12 Education.  And Skie is all about truth, justice, and the distance learning way of life.  Check postings on March 9th for Skie’s closing comments on this year’s TxDLA Spring Conference.

Bienvenido.

ED NOTE: In his spare time and when not participating in his normal day job… Skie is working on becoming a professional photographer!!

Being on the road for so much time during this past month, I could not allow myself to miss another class with my 12^th grade AP environmental science students. So… While sitting in my Swish session, I multi-tasked and held a synchronous class through the chat tool for WebCT.

The work of these kids during this time was amazing and just reinforces why we are here and why we need to keep learning how to teach to this new generation. It is through the technology and the willingness to change the way I teach that the students were allowed to drive most of the lesson while I just gave a little “poke” here and there to make sure they covered the ground.

The best part, they were able to approach the topic from their perspective and understanding and work as a group to construct the knowledge. They did the work!

Chris B

Looking back over the past 100 years, we can see that “school” has changed very little. A teacher from the mid 1800”s would find that little that is new in the teaching methodologies. Yes, there would be new content and some strange machines in the classroom. But, the teacher is still usually the “giver of knowledge”. Why is this so? We have a better understanding today than ever before how people learn but we still follow the time honored practice of the lecture as the main mode of “knowledge delivery”.

Today’s session titled “A humanistic approach in online assignments and activities with a focus on learning styles” challenged us to fight the temptation of replicating the lecture model in our online courses. While there are many learning theories - constructivism, experiential learning, the focus of the morning was on Gardner’s multiple intelligences. Exploring the different intelligences as they might be addressed in an online course, it became obvious that the importance of the lecture was greatly reduced while the learner was encouraged to become more engaged in the content and the construction of knowledge. When working with course design, we must work to include multiple intelligences as we are all a mixture of several intelligences with some being more dominate.

Chris B

Tarrant County utilizes a set of standards for all online courses, grouped into two categories: course development standards and classroom application standards. The faculty member is responsible for implementing the standards.

Does your institution have a similar system? What needs to be in place to implement such a quality assurance system?

KevinL

Live the heck outa life

Don’t play by the rules

Was it rice or pasta served w/the chicken?

Don’t just be a member. Step up

Just cuz a cat had kittens in the oven doesn’t make ‘em biscuits

It’s quite difficult to see itty bitty diagrams and details in the back of a very large room

-jen

By popular demand, this session will be offered again on Wed at 10am in Fiesta Rm B:

Emerging Technologies - With digital content and information being so accessible, there is the possibility that students are developing different methods of learning and that we should adjust our pedagogy to meet these evolving learners. This session will introduce the use of wikis, blogging and podcasts in blended and online courses.  -Chris Bigenho & Dr. Rhonda Blackburn

I’m posting in a blog while in a session about blogging …

Calli shared about a school shut down a school blog because an adult had found it and was interacting w/students.  Not stalking - just interacting. But instead of pwd protecting it they shut it down entirely. Way to throw out the baby with the bathwater…

gotta check out will at Work learning’s blog

I overheard that a session on blogs held yesterday is going to be repeated tomorrow at 10am in fiesta B.

But - Are people who are learning about blogs going to learn about a session on blogs by visiting this blog?? Guess we’ll see

-jen