Week Four

     Week Four gave me what I've been wanting in this program - an introduction to course design.
Building on the accounts opened in the previous week, I created a fictitious APEnglish class story creation project.  Links to those classes are on the sidebar.

      The most useful tool is the wiki on PBWorks.  It was much easier than I had feared it would be.  Eight years ago, while attending classes for a Master's in Education, I was instructed to build a webpage.  The number of steps required to make even the simplest page was unbelievable by today's standards.  All it took was a simple click on a button and typing in the name of the page to create a page.  One more click made a link to return to the original page.  Amazing.  I was able to make a home page with instructions to the student and separate pages for each assignment to take the small groups from choosing a topic and brainstorming the characters and setting all of the way to posting the finished product for peer review and then for public view on the web.  I learned how to download photos, clip-art, themes, and even videos to the wiki. 

     The Ning class was the easiest to set up, but probably not the most useful. It didn't have the versatility in terms of setting up different pages as the wiki.  It would be wonderful for blogging and for a discussion board tool.  The themes for the site were rich and well-designed.  A very nice feature is the photo slideshow capability. 
    
     The Facebook page was, well, not as versatile as the wiki or as eye-catching and intuitive as the Ning.  It is possible to make the group secret, by invitation only, which alleviates some of the security concerns presented by Facebook's more open features. 

     The "Minds on Fire" critical thinking exercise on the article of the same name by John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler (2008) was a thought-provoking look at the future of education and learning in general.  My response to the listed questions will be included as a separate document. 

Reference

Brown, J.S. & Adler, R.P. (2008). Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0. EDUCAUSE, January/February.