Week 4

I had trouble getting into this discussion. I even had trouble getting back into it for this write up. The discussion began with costs for designing and EdWeb, something I've never really thought about and still can't really wrap my head around. Maybe teachers just get to used to giving things away and using their own funds for classroom supplies that the cost factor isn't priority number 1 like it is in the business world.

From there we moved into discussing various aspects of formative evaluations and how we were going to apply it to our EdWeb. Maybe my work on the Evaluation committee last semester, but nothing in the conversation grabbed my attention or caused me to question something. Overall, I was pretty passive in this discussion.

I did offer up my insight from doing a usability test with Google last fall. And I do think that it helps you understand formative evaluation when you've been on the other side of it.

Jessica stated:

I love that he made that comment about making your questions about the subject and not about "them". For example, don't ask what they "don't understand" because that is about what "they" are able to do, rather than what is missing or confusing about the material.

This is important to remember because you aren't 'judging' your testers, you are judging yourself and your product and you can't have them feeling judged or they are less likely to provide good, honest feedback.

Jenn Olsen also deserves some credit for asking lots of good questions that Dave had to answer for us and our formative evaluations.

Week 3

The ideas presented in our discussion in week three have proven to be important and reoccuring themes in eLearning. Our main discussion surrounded the idea of instructor vs. student involvement, especially in threaded discussion. For the most part our group agreed, instructor involvement is a must, but should not over-power student involvement, because students tend to get to other students better. David Sprouse put it quite nicely when he stated:

In my view a good instructor doesn't just provide the right answer, but tries to lead his/her students in discovering the right answer for themselves. That is when the "learning" really takes place.

This is right inline with how I was thinking, but this is something I think needs to be told to the students. Students tend to see teachers as "right" and they aren't always, they are (or should be) good at getting others to think. I really like this idea. I want to be this kind of teacher and really person in general. Too often, I try to be 100% right or at least look that way.

Eileen brought up a quote on self-disclosure and moved the discussion in that direction. Our group was torn, but I see our main topic of concern as being the true definition of self-disclosure. My greatest contribution was when I attempted to help clarify this when I stated:

I don't think self-disclosure is necessarily something personal, or personal in the way it seems to be being discussed. Self-disclosure could be sharing your "personal" idea, or agreeing with a statement by shaking your head.....either way you are disclosing what you believe and understand.

This was one of the last comments made and no one responded, but I think it is always important to define your terms before you discuss with others, otherwise you may never be on the same page.