Khan Academy and MIT Open Courseware

One of the reasons that I am pursuing a M.S in Education Technologies is to leave the high school setting and become either an instructional designer or to teach college students. In order to see pre-developed content in my area of interest, I looked at both Khan Academy and MIT OpenCourseware.

Similarities
Both of them are intended for personal, non-commercial, education use.  For teachers that want to reproduce material, they have to indicate where the materials came from.  (Khan mandates a statement while MIT mandates a source citation.)  Both of them provide free courses for learners to further their education.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy allows teachers to build courses on their platform and for learners (students and teachers) to take courses; all for free. Khan Academy focuses on K-12 material, and therefore has a feel that is more intended for children.  Learners cannot post anything inappropriate, but they can take classes and earn points for completing tasks. The videos are also more child-friendly, broken into short segments. Even though the courses feel 'elementary,' it suits the intended audience.

The one thing that I love on Khan Academy is that there are website coding classes available! Even though educational technologies does not necessarily equate to coding, it is an invaluable skill. I love that it not only covers HTML, but also CSS and Javascript. In these courses, the videos are interactive--you can even edit the background that they are filling in to customize it yourself. The mini-challenges are engaging with tips, guidelines, and self-created content. In these particular courses, I think it follows Kolb's experimental learning theory because learners have to watch videos (reflective observation), draw conclusions about what they saw (abstract conceptualization), work on the mini-activities (active experimentation), and then create final activities (concrete experience).

Actually, I intend on taking these website coding classes because they will expand my job skills and will help me personalize my webpages. If I become an instructor for college students, I would also recommend these Khan Academy's courses to students for personal use or for (those that will become teachers) their future students' use.

MIT OpenCourseware

First of all, I liked the ease of finding courses by topic and sub-topic; I found "educational technology" very quickly. There are 7 classes and 2 supplemental sources for the undergraduate level, and 6 courses at the graduate level. The only class I don't foresee myself ever using was the one about architecture. As a potentially future college instructor, the undergraduate courses and supplemental sources would be an invaluable resource. Each course includes the syllabus; the text books; as well as the assignments, readings, activities, and topics.  Some of the courses are structured differently (days/weeks/sessions), but they all include a calendar for pacing. Obviously this would be a great resource for anyone (students or myself) who wants to continue their learning and/or explore a particular subject without having to pay for college tuition.

As a professor, I could use some of the courses as guidelines to developing my own courses. If I wanted to use any of the course materials, I would be able to (with the aforementioned citation), but for the content marked "all rights reserved," I would have to make sure that all usage adheres to the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for OpenCourseWare.  The materials, obviously, lend themselves to a fully online course. However, if I were to teach a face-to-face class, I would reconstruct the activities to create a 'flipped classroom.' I could follow the outline of a pre-made course and make it my own. The readings and lectures would be online. I would use classroom time to follow social learning theory with in-class discussions to review and further explore the homework. I would also include pair or small group activities like creating lesson plans incorporating the technology or theory covered in the homework in order to address social learning theory and to make the content more interactive.

Edmodo vs Google Classrooms

In the past, I have used different course management systems (CMSs) as a student (blackboard and ecollege). However, I have used neither Google Classroom nor Edmodo in a learning environment (as a teacher or student). I will say that I like how much easier it is to create an Edmodo account without the restrictions of Google Classrooms. Despite how easy it is to create an account, there is still a level of privacy because you're not allowed to join any class. Google Classrooms has tighter security which is usually a great thing. However, some teachers like to have parent involvement, and Edmodo allows parents to join in the classrooms as well.

Similarities
In general, I would say that these two platforms offer many of the same features but in different ways. Accounts can be accessed through web browsers, a tablets, and mobile applications. Assignments can be posted by the teacher and submitted by the students. Quizzes can be delivered and taken. Grades can be posted and tracked. Students can interact with one another and with the teacher in forums or in messages. Documents and slides/powerpoints  can be created and stored online. Basically, these CMSs allow teachers to either move their classrooms entirely online or to create a blended classroom. Both of them are user-friendly and simplistic; a student/teacher would have to take a little bit of time to familiarize themselves with either of them. (YouTube videos are a great resource in addition to just playing around with the available buttons).

Differences
The biggest difference that I see is that Google Classrooms is connected to Google Drive. Because of this, there are some awkward steps for quizzes and small-group discussions. While Edmodo has tools to create quizzes and small-group forums within the platform, Google Classrooms relies on Google Forms for quizzes and Google Sheets for small-group forums. That said, Google Classroom allows for an ease in creation, saving, and completion of assignments (i.e. documents and slides) on their virtual Google Drive that Edmodo cannot offer. For instance, Google Classroom teachers can create assignments in their drive, which can then be copied into the students' drives. Students can also create their own documents/projects in Google Drive and connect it to their classroom account, as well as co-create assignments (sharing drive links/invitations to edit). Edmodo is connected to MS Office and can create documents online, but they are stored only in one's personal Edmodo library. Personally, I think Drive allows for a better long-term access to classroom documents and assignments because people will stay connected to their e-mail rather than a learning platform throughout their life.

Teaching Implications
Both technologies support teaching because teachers can upload class content, information, and assignments. Both CMSs support learning because students can access and learn the material, complete the assignments, and collaborate with their peers.  Assignments, like in the classroom, can be tailored to: rote memorization and regurgitating information on quizzes (behaviorist theory), the creation and exploring of new knowledge with assignments like WebQuests (constructivist theory/higher thinking on Bloom's Taxonomy), or to rely on peer collaboration or feedback in forums/on posts (social learning theory).

Teachers can use these platforms as a supplement to their brick-and-mortar classrooms for students to access the class materials both at home and in the classroom. Another option for classroom teachers is to use either platform to create a flipped classroom; the instructional material is posted online for at-home access and the classroom is used for activities and class discussions. Both platforms foster social learning by allowing students interact with one another as a whole class or in (teacher-created) small groups.

Design Experiment I: Google Apps

For this "design experiment" I looked at several Google products: Classroom, Tour Builder, Hangouts, and Scholar. I watched a couple of videos on Google Classroom and I am impressed with all of the options for it to support an online classroom. It looks like a great, simple class management system with the ability to assign homework, turn in homework, share information, and for everyone in the class to interact with one another. Because I couldn't make an account, I don't know if I would like it better than Edmodo which allows student accounts to be made quickly and easily. I fell in love with Tour Builder and even made a quick autobiography to track all the places I lived/visited and to see how much of the globe I have covered. I even looked at a few Tour Builders that tracked the founding of companies. I like how stories are told through prose, pictures, and geographical locations. I didn't like the zoom in/out of the screen, which can make it a bit awkward to design (especially if some places require more map space than others). I looked at Google Hangouts and had a quick 'call' with a friend which went better than expected. (I'm a big fan of Skype). While figuring it out took a little while, I like that there are options for small group video calls (and free--unlike Skype.) Lastly, I looked at Google Scholar which impressed me with the amount of full-text scholarly articles available. It's like accessing an awesome database that schools have to pay to subscribe to. I think databases are a bit easier to navigate and refine searches, though. In brainstorming ideas on how and what I might teach with them, I decided to come up with a holistic activity.

In the High School English Language Arts classroom, research papers and historical fiction are staples to the curriculum. While this could be done for any number of books, this project focuses on "The Red Badge of Courage" by Robert Crane.

Objectives
1. Students will learn about the historical setting of the novel through research.
2. Students will be able to present their ideas from their research by creating a visual 'Tour.'
3. Students will be able to relate the figurative language found in the literary work by connecting it to its historical setting.

Pedagogy
Overall, this lesson follows Anchored Instruction because "The Red Badge of Courage" is the focal point for activities beyond reading comprehension. In this particular activity, students will research the American Civil War in order to understand the novel's historical context and develop a deeper understanding of the novel.

Students will work with a partner in this project both in and out of the classroom. Google Hangouts will help facilitate collaboration, and students will be able to learn from one another, filling in gaps in each other's knowledge as evidenced in Vygotsky's Social Development Theory.

By generating their own research, determining its relevance, and connecting the research to the book, students will learn through the Cognitive Flexibility Theory.

Research Project
1. Students will work with a partner to research the battles in the American Civil War using a variety of resources, with an emphasis on Google Scholar for their search engine.
2. Students  will determine which battles are the most relevant (whether in regards to the war itself or to the novel).
3. Using Google Tour Builder, students will create a visual timeline to document the locations of each of the battles with a statement about the battle's importance to the Civil War and/or the novel.

**Google Classroom will be a source of communication between the teacher and the students both in and out of the classroom. Virtual conference hours will be kept. Assignment information and due dates will be posted. Students can interact with one another, with the teacher, and submit their assignments.
**Google Hangouts will be for pairs to communicate at home/out of class.