Unit. 4: Final Report

Activity 1

In this activity, we should improve and finalize all our annotated bibliographies, according to the feedback we received from Prof. Morten and from our colleagues, compiling, refining and expanding the three annotated bibliographies we have written so far as a comprehensive annotated bibliography from our work in this course.

To improve my annotated bibliographies about the three topics, I decided to do a revision on my work, writing an introduction and a conclusion with more of my personal reflections but with careful to distinguish between my personal reflections and my transcriptions of the authors’ work. I also decided to add more references, including information on how many pages the referenced works has, like is required in our learning contract on “ find and read 100-200 pages of articles, blog entries etc, related to the topics discussed in this course."

Cooperative Freedom

In online education there are students that seek individual flexibility and freedom, but some need or prefer group collaboration and social unity. These aims are not easy to combine. There is a tension between the urge for individual independence and the necessity to contribute in a collective learning community. However, the Theory of Cooperative Freedom claims that online education can foster both freedom for the individual and group cooperation. According Paulsen, M. F. 2008, the “Cooperative learning seeks to develop virtual learning environments that allow students to have optimal individual freedom within online learning communities”. In the Theory of Cooperative Freedom, there are six facets of flexibility of high importance – time, space, medium, access and content that allows the students to reach their academic success, regardless the level of autonomy they decided to have for their education progress.

To understand the meaning of Cooperative Freedom I considered the following documents very useful.

Paulsen, M. F. (2008). Cooperative Online Education. Seminar.net - International journal of media, technology and lifelong learning. Retrieved on March 23, 2010 from http://rededucativa.pbworks.com/f/paulsen_-_cooperative_online_education.pdf

Paulsen, M. F. (2003). Cooperative Freedom: An Online Education Theory. Online Education and Learning Management Systems. Retrieved on March 23, 2010 from http://www.slideshare.net/hasantayyar/cooperative-freedom-an-online-education-theory

Paulsen, M. F. (2003). Online Education and Learning Management Systems.
Retrieved on June 2, 2010 from http://home.nki.no/morten/index.php/english-menu/5-english/54-online-version-of-my-book.html

This first document is an article that belongs to Professor Morten Flate Paulsen and shows that cooperative learning can be implemented with success through a set of instruments or means. The article presents a study of distance education and cooperative learning experience, where are discusses how issues like web.2, transparency, learning partner and individual progression plans relate to cooperative online education. The study was conducted in the end of 2007 and the assessment instrument used was the questionnaire with quantitative and qualitative questions. This article has 20 pages.

Figure 3. Facets of flexibility discussed in the Theory of Cooperative Freedom. Retrieved from Paulsen, M. F. (2008). Cooperative Online Education. Seminar.net - International journal of media, technology and lifelong learning.

In second document, that is also an article, from Professor Morten Flate Paulsen presents the Theory of Cooperative Freedom as a theory of autonomy and independence, a theory to support distance education. The author stands that students should decide the level of autonomy they want for their education progress. This theory is centered on the tension between individual independence and collective cooperation within the dimensions of time, space, pace, medium, access, and content within distance education contexts. The Theory of Cooperative Freedom defends that online education can foster both freedom for the individual and group cooperation. This article has 12 pages.

The third document is a book written by Professor Morten Flate Paulsen. This book presents a collection of articles about Online Education and Learning Management Systems, carefully selected. In between these articles there are some personal contributions that intended to illustrate interesting online education practice. Some articles were written especially for this book, others was updated and revised versions of material that the author had earlier published. The book is very clear in its structure that allow us reading each article separately and in any order. For this reason some issues are referred in more than one article. This book has 338 pages.

After reading these documents, we can conclude that online education can promote both individual freedom and group cooperation, facilitating collaboration and stimulating the discussion between students. In online education, learning could be individual, cooperative or collaborative. The online education, allow students to chose the level of autonomy they want for their education progress. Individual learning provides much individual flexibility, but little access to learning community. Cooperative learning provides much individual flexibility and access to learning community and collaborative learning requires participation in learning community, but limits individual flexibility. In my opinion the collaborative learning gives students the opportunity to help and motivate each other. The contributions of other students can be very useful to deal the tasks that are difficult to solve alone. In my opinion, this way all students learn more.

Online Teaching Techniques

Online Teaching Techniques can be used to improve the quality of learning because students learn more easily. With these techniques, is more pleasant to the students learn. I think is very important to the teacher know how to do and use these techniques. These way teachers can motivate their students, by facilitating learning. For this reason, in my annotated bibliography about Online Teaching Techniques I decided to choose only one document. However, there are others documents very important ones about Online Teaching Techniques. I chose the following document.

Carvalho, A. (org.) (2008). Manual de Ferramentas de Web 2.0 para Professores. Ministério da Educação. DGIDC. Retrieved on April 17, 2010 from http://www.erte.dgidc.min-edu.pt/publico/web20/manual_web20-professores.pdf

This manual is a document for teachers who want to learn to use some online teaching techniques. This manual contains nine chapters that present various online teaching techniques and that helps teachers to insert themselves in this type of education. Each chapter contextualizes each online teaching technique, explains how to create an online space and discusses their use in educational practices. This manual has 240 pages.

The first chapter talks about the Blog, YouTube, Flickr and Delicious. Present the blog and its relevance in an educational context, showing how to create a Blog, provide a link and insert an image or a video from the YouTube, using a Blogger as an example. Explains how to create a YouTube account, approaching the TeacherTube too. Contains information how to create a Flickr account provide an image and finally how to have bookmarks always accessible on the Delicious.

The second chapter talks about the Podcast and about the user of the software Audacity. Presents an introduction to the Posdcast, showing how to create and record a Podcast on the Podomatic. It also explains how to write a file audio in Audacity and how to do an upload file to the Podomatic.

The third chapter talks about Dandelife, Wiki and Goowy. Initially makes some considerations about Web 2.0 in education, presented the Dandelife like a tool to make timelines, which allows integrating text, images from Flicker, videos from YouTube and files audio. Presents the characteristics of the Wiki and how to create a Wiki space, giving PBWiki as an example. Finally, make an approach to the Goowy, online desktop that integrates e-mail, calendar, files, contacts, flash games, notepad that can be used as a e-book student, RSS reader, integrated search, visualization of videos from the YouTube, Posdcats, among other features.

The fourth chapter talks about the Google Toolbar: Page Creator, Docs and Calendar. Presents the Google Page Creator, that provides a Web pages without the hassle of a housing server. Discusses the features of Google Docs that integrates documents in word processor, office excel and presentations. Finally, indicates the functionalities of the Calendar and its usefulness.
The fifth chapter discusses PopFly. Presents PopFly service, free, online to develop mashups, gadgets, web pages and applications. A mashup uses informations from more than one source to create a new service or application Web. It also explains how can make a mashup.

The sixth chapter is about Web 2.0 and Mobile Technologies. Show the advantages of Web 2.0 in access to information, publication and online sharing, showing their access through mobile technologies and its implications on learning. It made a presentation of mobile version of some Web applications, like Mobile Google, Mobile YouTube, Mobile Zoho, Blinkx, Bloove, Winksite, Blurpulse, Gipit, EQO, Mobilicious and Twitter.

The seventh chapter talks about Second Life and Virtual Environments. Contextualizes and features Virtual Environments, focusing on Second Life. Explains how to create an avatar in Second Life, as moves the character in this Virtual Environments, interacts with other avatars, making shopping and changing the appearance of the avatar. Presents some suggestion on what we can be done in Second Life, including the possibility of earning money. Presents other virtual worlds that are being to imposed like Vastpark and Metaplace, referring to the virtual world of Google. Finally discusses the implications of virtual worlds in learning.

The eighth chapter speaks of Movie Maker to YouTube. Describes and demonstrates the potential of Windows Movie Maker to assemble or create animated films based on images. This software, easy to learn, allows the teachers and students montages of quality that can be shared on the YouTube. Also indicates how available a video or animation on YouTube, which can be public or private.

The chapter nine shows the Conceptual Maps Online. Introduces the concept of conceptual map. Explains the implications of concept maps in learning how to install on the computer how to create a conceptual map with text, image, sound or video and how to export a map.

After reading this document, we can conclude that Web 2.0 tools are very useful for teachers because they facilitate the online teaching. The Web 2.0 tools can be used in any area of education. I think the application of this tools is very important and teachers must follow the times evolution, using technology on benefit of education. The Web 2.0 tools allow teachers to find new teaching strategies and develop skills required for teaching successfully, using technology. This manual gives us a number of interesting examples with a set of very valuable and practical suggestions.

The following report written by Professor Morten Flate Paulsen is very interesting because puts in evidence pedagogical techniques on computer-mediated communication, presenting an overview about them. This online report was published as a result of an accomplished work by the author as first speaker at the ICDE-95 On-line World Conference in distance education. The conference had place in Birmingham, England, June 26-30, 1995.

Paulsen, M. F. (1995). The Online Report on Pedagogical Techniques for Computer-Mediated Communication. Retrieved on June 2, 2010 from

http://nettskolen.nki.no/forskning/19/cmcped.html

In my opinion this report is a very important testimony about pedagogical techniques. It is very enlightening and makes good references to other books and to their authors as well as their contributions to these topics. The pedagogical techniques chosen by Professor Morten Flate Paulsen for the online session were the brainstorm. This technique was chosen with the intention to give the participants the opportunity to share experiences on pedagogical techniques applied in computer-mediated communication. I think this technique is very useful because it motivates the participants to share their thoughts and describe their experiences. According the author of this report, a pedagogical technique is a way of achieving teaching goals. In this report, the author also presents four pedagogical techniques, one-alone techniques, one-to-one techniques, one-to-many techniques and many-to-many techniques, describing each of them and their approaches.


Transparency in Online Education

The Transparency in Online Education is very important to improve the quality of online education, the quality of work increases when we see the work of other and when they see our and gives constructive feedback. However, inherent to the transparency there are some risks that we must know. From the study that I did about Transparency in Online Education, I considered the cartoons from Morten Flate Paulsen about Transparency for Quality and Transparency for Cooperation very interesting and useful for the understanding of these issues.



Transparency for Quality by Morten F.P.

Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from Http://toonlet.com/archive?m=s&i=11247

Transparency for Cooperation by Morten F.P.

Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from Http://toonlet.com/archive?m=s&i=11245

The approach of the Transparency for Quality and Transparency for Cooperation in these cartoons is clear and objective. The first cartoon talks about the importance of transparency in improving the quality of online education, pointing out that the quality of work increases when we see the work of others and when they see ours and give constructive feedback. The second cartoon is about the importance of transparency in the cooperation between the students of this kind of education. However, it also addresses the importance of students’ privacy and whether they are free to choose the level of transparency they want in order to protect their privacy.

It is also very instructive the observation of Visualizing Students’ Profiles through NKI's Online Catalogue and Student Network, from Morten Flate Paulsen.

Visualizing Student Profiles through NKI's Online Catalogue and Student Network

View more presentations from Morten Flate Paulsen.

Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from http://www.slideshare.net/MortenFP/visualizing-student-profiles-through-nkis-online-catalogue-and-student-network

The slide reveals the importance of the NKI Distance Education allowing students the opportunity to share information. Transparency in information facilitates cooperation among students. Some students share information about their online course activities with other people, others use the presentation as an online CV. This slide still addresses the risks inherent in transparency, for example, inappropriate content, the rights of authors, unsatisfied students remarks and students who expose too much personal information.

The blog about Teaching as Transparent Learning ( Siemmens, G. 2009) is also very important.

Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from http://www.connectivism.ca/?p=122

This blog is a personal report about the experience of being a transparent student. This blog discusses the importance of seeing others learn, emphasizing the fact that when we observe others learning, we learn from them, and when we share information in a transparent way, we also teach others.

To explore this theme I considered useful to read the following documents.

Dalsgaard, C., & Paulsen, M. F. (2009). Transparency in Cooperative Online Education. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 10 (3). Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/671/1301

Dalsgaard, C. (2009). Supporting Transparency Between Students. The International Conference on E-Learning in the Workplace 2009. Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from http://person.au.dk/fil/16581515/Dalsgaard_Supporting_Transparency.pdf

Dalsgaard, C. (2008). Social networking sites: Transparency in online education. Retrieved on May 19, 2010 from http://eunis.dk/papers/p41.pdf

The first document has got twenty two pages and talks about Transparency in Cooperative Online Education. In this document the authors, Christian Dalsgaard and Morten Flate Paulsen, explore the potential of social networking within cooperative online education. The authors say that a social networking does not necessarily involve communication, dialogue, or collaboration. They argue that transparency is an exceptional feature of social networking services. Christian Dalsgaard and Morten Flate Paulsen show how cooperative learning can be supported by transparency with examples. The document discusses what resources social networking and transparency can use within cooperative online education. The pedagogical potential of social networking is supported by transparency that facilitates the production of knowledge between students.


The second document contains four pages and talks about the Transparency Between Supporting Students. In this document the author, Christian Dalsgaard, presents the results of a case study that explores the potential of weblogs and social bookmarking to sustain transparency in a university course. The objective of the case was to empower students by providing them with tools that would be evident to the other students in the course, thus, making students’ ideas, thoughts and questions perceptible to the other students in the course. The document concludes that the use of digital media for transparency can sustain empowerment of students and motivation between students in a course, but that the challenge is to create an equilibrium among personal tools and tools for collaborative group work that are also proper for transparency between students.

The third document contains six pages and talks about the pedagogical potential of social networking sites. In this document, the collaboration and users created content are, frequently, appointed as major potentials of Web 2.0 technologies. The author, Christian Dalsgaard, says that a central characteristic of social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Ning is a combination between personalization and socialization that facilitates the transparency between students. The transparency is a dominating feature that allows the students to see each other work. The social networking sites do not necessarily involve communication, dialogue or collaboration. This document argues how social networking can be used in university education by students to share information and resources developed for themselves, but made accessible to others. The communication on forums always takes place in a shared forum and in social networking sites the social interaction is originates in one person.

After reading these documents, we can conclude that we may learn with other students. For this reason is very important see others learn, for learn with them, comparing the quality of our work with theirs. The transparency in information facilitates cooperation among students. This way we can share information and help each other improve our work, learning and teaching. The other students can give us very useful and valuable contributions to improve our work. In online education we can find a set of resources social networking that use transparency for cooperation. In this course, for example, there are many opportunities to do that.