Flexknowlogy – Jared Stein's ARCHIVED blog – update to jaredstein.org

Earlier this week my boss asked “what I had” on capping class size in online courses. I had nothing, but it’s an interesting question. In Distance Education at UVU we have seen online class sizes vary from just one student to hundreds of students–the decision is made by the academic department chair in consultation with the instructor. This question is therefore pertinent for our academic department chairs, especially as UVU moves to reduce class size-based instructional compensation. Administrative pressure to free up class space and meet students’ demand enlarges this issue. However, a view of recent and available articles reinforced what I already suspected: there is no single optimum size for an online class; instead, class size should be informed by learning objectives, curriculum, instructor load, and teaching philosophy (more…)

Darren Draper stirred up another conversation on his blog yesterday (Hacking the Curriculum) which intersects a number of my interests: independent study, reusable course content, and open education, and reiterates the question, what is not replaceable in teaching? In the live classroom? In individual instructor-developed curriculum? And how far can we stretch the re-usability of online educational materials? (more…)

The Chronicle’s Wired Campus column published a short commentary on the creepy tree house effect, quoting Alec Couros and myself. I then stumbled upon a couple really great blog posts on the subject that simply popped in response–definitely worth the read, as each offers an in-depth reaction to the concept and term:

• LilaTov Cocktail: “Creepy Treehouse” effect: Twitter & Facebook suck when they’re required by your professor
• Marie-Jose Klaver Met je professor in een boomhut (In a Treehouse with Your Professor) (Dutch — does “kippenvel” mean “goosebumps”?)
• AnneC Trouver l’équilibre (French — relates personal experiences with student resistance to instructor-implemented social media)
• History-ing: Creepy Treehouse

The persistence of this discussion should be encouraging for John Krutsch and Marc Hugentobler, who will be presenting at this year’s WCET Annual Conference specifically on the creepy tree house effect in a session titled “Taking the ‘Creepy’ Out of ‘Creepy Tree House’”. I look forward to seeing educators and administrators engage in discussion and debate on the meaningful/meaningless-ness of the term, any deleterious effects it might have on teaching and learning, and how we can leverage technology without wasting our time.

There is some amazingly engaging stuff in Howard Rheingold’s “Howard K. Martian” video episodes (circa 1976), and hope to take some inspiration from the deliberate, steeped-in-whackiness approach to teaching.

Currently Howard has posted 3 video episodes of The Martian Report on his vlog web site. Most memorable bit of episode 3 is the teletype-driven, computer-generated science fiction story #5:

Earth is attacked by giant betelgeusian potato bugs which want our women and are not at all radioactive and cannot be killed by a pleasant crowd of peasants with tear gas and torches, but a priest talks to them of God and they die.

The End

I think it was sheer coincidence that this particular episode ends with an announcement of God’s retirement, wherein he reveals half of the secret to organizing the cosmos:

You didn’t really think I would spoil it here, did you? Watch episode 3 to learn how it’s done!

I teach DGM 2740: Web Design online (and once in a blue moon on-campus). This is the course that sequentially and logically follows DGM 2120: Web Essentials (which I also teach) at Utah Valley University in the Digital Media department.

During the first week of Web Design I have students read The Expert Mind, an article by Philip Ross featured in Scientific American. This is a great article for those gearing up to master any field of study. Among it’s arguments is the idea of effortful study“:

Effortful study is the key to achieving success in chess, classical music, soccer and many other fields. New research has indicated that motivation is a more important factor than innate ability.

Web design is a field that mixes many other fields together, and today’s expert Web designers must have a foundational knowledge of design theory, including it’s elements and principles as well as knowledge of information architecture, usability, accessibility, computer graphic applications, and, of course, languages such as XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc. These areas require memorization, rote practice, problem-solving, examples, and independent exploration. In general this relates to the cognitive aspect of learning, one which can be mediated at least in part through a behaviorist approach (see Bill Kerr’s article on Minsky for a clearer introductory explanation on this notion, though as I learned as a grad student and witnessed first-hand as a language teacher, there is an affective domain which, when attended to appropriately, can positively impact learning as information is made personally meaningful, as emotion is stimulated, and as neural connections formed/forged and reinforced.

But to become an expert, to master Web design one must have intrinsic motivation as the SciAm article suggests, and as we learn from ed researches such as Maslow, Schunk, etc . I believe that part of that motivation is inherent in stduents decision to become a Web developer/designer. But students can fuel yourself by feeding off of the larger Web design community. And with the current manifestation of the information age, the increasing popularity of social software and online networking (the so-called “Web 2.0″), there has never been a better time to be connected to experts and professionals in the field.

This is not to say that I encourage my students to harass the current luminaries of Web design; rather I want my students to read about them, observe their activities through social software tools such as blogs and twitter. I want them to use folksonomies, and use tools like del.icio.us and digg to find the best and most talked about articles in the field. In essence, I want them to go, read, and do what the professionals go, read, and do, whether that’s taking in the latest ideas and commentary in periodicals such as A List Apart, or asking questions and providing answers on discussion forums and mailing lists such as CSS Discuss.

As my students develop their skills and rack up experiences, they can become more and more a part of this professional community. At the same time, I believe there is value in students forming their own community to support, learn from, and show off to each other. That’s part of why I’m now having students create and write in a blog designated to the subject of Web design and development. Not only can they emulate some of the practices of the experts by sharing, analyzing, and even writing Web design related news, they are creating nodes through which they can find and connect with each other.

And the blogs are something they can take with them. By independently finding and analyzing news or information articles related to Web design, they are building a highly visible portfolio piece that they can (1) continue after they finish the course, and (2) incorporate into resume materials to present to prospective employers. Definitely one of the pros of embedding authentic social software tools (see Scott Leslie’s Pros and Cons of Loosely Coupled Teaching for an idea of where this could end up taking us).

At the same time, I recognize there may be a natural reluctance in students for whole-hearted embracing of the idea of writing a blog for class. It’s the whole creepy treehouse notion, and it’s probably also some insecurity–these are, after all, novices for the most part. For students who are wary of the meaningfulness of the blog assignments, just remember:

You don’t have to be an expert yet to write a blog, you just need to be interested, teachable, and energetic. You have to be motivated to learn.

You are apprentices, and this is effortful study.