Saturday, September 06, 2008

CCK08. My plans for BaeL and CCK08

My plans are to open the site, I may connect with teachers and future friends from CCK08. ;-)

I will create more groups. A Spanish one is required but I have not found a nice widget to assess Spanish level as the one I placed at the English Club. Spanish WiZiQ Club, English WiZiQ Club, Voicethread Clubs in Spanish and English are already a target.

The idea is to help those who need assistance to learn Spanish, English, WiZiQ, SL, Voice, etc. while at the same time promote the teachers activities and sites. In that way everybody wins!

I know about teachers that currently have free Language groups in different levels and are using different venues.
For example: I will create an English WiZiQ Club to direct them towards Nellie who teaches pronunciation in English and a Spanish WiZiQ Club to send stds towards Nancy Sánches who teaches Spanish. I need to talk to those teachers. They are already putting the effort so I won´t add workload to them. Does this gives you the idea?

I am having difficulties finding tutorials to WiZiQ, SL, PbWiki, and VoiceThread in Spanish. I cannot do them all on my own, besides my mic recording volume is terribly low and neither Gonzalo or I have been able to find a solution. At CCK08 conference I will be in touch with Spanish speaker teachers so I may find that they have tutorials in Spanish and they may be willing to share.

You see? So far my online contacts have been Webheads English teachers so I need to find support from bilingual teachers that teach their subjects in Spanish. I am so selfish! I am planning to connect with a purpose!

A new adventure CCK08

I joined Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Online Course, it starts on September 8, 2008 and ends on November 30, 2008.

Gonzalo and I, after checking our finances, decided that it was better to pay for it. After all, I will invest time and effort while we will shorten the little time we have to hang together. So to do all that for free without a Certificate from the University of Manitoba, Canada... did not feel right.

I am very excited, I know I will learn a lot though it may be out of my league.
The course has not started and I already have installed CMaps and got PageFlakes which are new for me.
I would like to add a Twemes account to follow the Twitter Course Site in this page, I will attempt to add it.

This will be my second course using Moodle, the first one was my Diploma Course on Teaching English to First Graders. I want to learn how to use Moodle, not only as participant but as facilitator. Andy's Computer Literacy Programs are in Moodle so I would like BaeL project to use Moodle too. I know it is not a free platform, the way to get access to it will show itself.

The outline of the course as stated at the Wiki is:

Course Description: Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. This course will help participants make sense of the transformative impact of technology in teaching and learning over the last decade. The voices calling for reform do so from many perspectives, with some suggesting 'new learners' require different learning models, others suggesting reform is needed due to globalization and increased competition, and still others suggesting technology is the salvation for the shortfalls evident in the system today. While each of these views tell us about the need for change, they overlook the primary reasons why change is required.

Programs: For credit in Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education and Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning (certificate will be available January, 2009.

Technologies Used: Through out this "course" participants will use a variety of technologies. For example, participants will use blogs, Second Life, Page Flakes, attend UStream sessions, attend Elluminate sessions, participate in discussions in Moodle forums, and so on. Additional technologies will be introduced as is required to attend to concerns or opportunities arising over the next 12 weeks.

Facilitators: George Siemens and Stephen Downes will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course.

We have a Moodle Forum, a Course Blog, the above mentioned Course Wiki and a Course Mailing List.

We will have Wednesday Sessions at Elluminate and Friday Sessions held in UStream.

Learners will be asked to complete the following activities during the course (students enrolled for credit through University of Manitoba will receive feedback from facilitators.

The Learners Assignments and Evaluation is as follows:
Weekly reflections on blogs
Participation in moodle forums and commenting on blogs by peer learners in the course
Three short reflective papers (500-750 words)
Concept map (using a tool like CMAP)
Final presentation - video, podcast, presentation addressing "What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I? How has this course influence your view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)? What types of questions are still outstanding?"

Views about CCK08

Why did I joined and I am willing to pay for it? My first life friends do not get it.
Because I learn more when I have feedback from experts and my work is evaluated. As a plus I will get a diploma, if I succeed, from the University of Manitoba, Canada. I know it may be beyond my league, I am not savvy but I am eager to learn.

On the other hand, to build credentials for online teaching is important for me. I feel more secure and I can provide better service if I study formally.

I toyed with the idea of creating another blog just for the course. At the end I decided to place my mind maps, findings, ideas, difficulties and so on here. I do not write to be read, I opened this blog to collect my experiences as e-Learner and to have a place to rely on to find answers and tools.
I know I won't be comfortable during the course with so many new tools and information; therefore, the idea of having a known blog platform, a known site with my links, the tools I have used and the posts with answers to difficulties will minimize the uncertainty I feel. After I take Blogging4Educators course, at 2009 EVO sessions, I will attempt WorldPress.

The course has not started and I already found two new tools and struggled with a known one. PageFlakes and CMap are new for me. I had seen PageFlakes at the Baw08 course but I did not use it and there was not a PageFlakes page for it, as far as I could understand. I struggled with Google Maps, I did not find where to change the color of the marker!

I have downloaded the readings, I got a no-break and I will find a way to have a printer and a Web Cam soon. I will borrow them :-)

I have taken just one course using Moodle, my Diploma course in Teaching Elglish for First graders. This will be my second one. I want to learn to use Moodle not only as student, I know Andy's Computer Literacy Program uses it. I would like BaeL project to use it too; I know it is not a free platform... the way to get it will show itself.

I found the following presentation, it really widened my views about e-learning and connecting with students. Stephen Downes web page got me thinking seriously. The tools he exposes, his point of view and experience made my imagination fly. My BaeL project will benefit a lot by reading him. He is one of the co-moderators of the course. George Siemens is the other one, in his featured page at The Daily I found a great site to learn about e-Learning, it gives structure to the concept and guidelines. I will explore it further.
If BaeL project gets strength I will need to learn the knowledge foundation that they expose and the tools the suggest.