Distributed Learning

Distributed learning, often used as a buzz-word, is more of a paradigm-shift forcing educators and learners to re-examine learning and act differently. From an educator's point of view, distributed learning means providing the same level of educational resources and services to learners regardless of their individual "distances". For learners, distributed learning means access to what, where, when and how they need to learn. Fellow professional educators, beware: there are more learners than there are educators. We need to listen. We need to go where the learners already are as opposed to driving them to us. We need to be learners ourselves.

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Adapting Learning with Entry Tests

Over the course of the term, I have been working to focus the work of my students, narrowing what they need to study to prepare for the Official GED Examinations. I have been using entry tests provided in the online course to create study plans. The first step is to examine the results for lessons where the student was not successful. Using performance analysis charts provided, we create a list of these lessons. Then we enter these lessons onto a 12 week chart to create a plan. With the first group of students, we completed this task, from marking to lesson listing to study planning, using the textbook and a blank study plan. I sat down with each (or discussed on the phone) their results using the provided performance analysis charts. First, we looked at the overall score to determine to what extent they would need to focus on the unit based on the cut score provided. Next we examined each item. We found the Writing Unit Entry Test straightforward with the chart pointing to the less...

Leadership Academy: Part 1

I just finished the first session of the Leadership Academy held at the Banff Centre. I saw an elk, navigated through a high speed bike race and found my way inside the Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation. Certainly, you could not find a more beautiful place in the world, with the fresh air, the looming mountains and the rolling river. An excellent place to relax and think. And the participants, from Alberta, British Columbia and even Indiannapolis, are friendly and eager to share. Everyone has checked their agendas and issues at the door, so people are free to speak. Over the half of the group is from SAIT, and many of them were meeting their colleagues for the first time. The focus of the academy will be to tap the current experiences and knowledge from this group to be "transformative" through this "learner-centred approach". They have already us fill out three surveys and an learning styles inventory. They have had us moving about t...

Teaching and Learning

Teaching is both an art and a science. It calls upon us to be good. It summons us to be kind as an act of giving. It requires us to know the subject-matter, our students and ourselves. It has models and trends. It cannot be done without ever vigilant learning. It is an action that pulls and pushes us. It consumes us and fills us up. In teaching, we can shape learning but we cannot control it. Learning will happen whether we are there or not. Yet often, it cannot seem to take place without us. When we teach, we start with objectives. Students tow along working to choose and pursue their own learning goals and interests. Learning can be vast and at the same time small.It is an act both formalized and institutionalized. It happens at work among colleagues and at home with family and friends. Despite our attempts to organize it, learning is innately social, and very human. It occurs over distances and everywhere two people can be fo...

Hilgartner Open Learning

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