Wrapping it up into a mini-course
My goal when creating my mini- course was to create a "virtual" place that contains all the resources students would need as they do their final projects in my class. This collection of tools could be used independently to teach students about the resources available or it can be used as reference to refresh students on how to do some aspect of the project. By using technology to present these skills to students I don't have to use as much class time and students will have the mini- course as a resource they can access on any computer. I see this mini-course growing as additional tools get added. In fact the whole way that I even go about doing my final project I now see changing to incorporate even more technology tools.
The first question I asked myself when I began is, where do I want this mini- course to exist? I first chose google sites because of my familiarity with it and ease that my students could access it. As I began to set up my class I was just not happy with how it felt or looked. This made me uninspired to even want to do this mini- course. I knew I needed change. In class when Sally introduced us to Haiku I found it interesting but was concerned still about the ability to access and compatibility to other application I might use. The selling point was the first day in class we shared our projects and I saw how clean looking and easy Haiku was to use. I immediately set up an account and began work. The importance in how my class appears does matter to me. I know I can be turned off as a learner when I am not stimulated by what is on the page in front of me. Teaching teenagers, which have an even a shorter attention span I knew this was important. In the end I am happy with Haiku and I look forward to seeing how my students react.
The instructional design of this class followed the Dick and Carey method. First, I identified the instructional goals for the entire project or purpose (stated above), then I thought about who were my learners ( high school students), what do they currently know or the skills they currently have about technology, and then thought about what am I trying to get them to know in this mini- course ( library tools, the do's and don'ts of searching the world wide web, and Diigo) . I then was able to create objectives for the course which explained to the learner what they will gain from taking this course. The final assessment for this mini-course is the students doing their final projects in my class. I then worked from the final assessment back to create the lesson students would need in order to successfully complete their final projects. As I thought about how I was going to teach each mini- lesson I thought about the ways my students learn best. I made sure to include lots of videos as well as written instructions. I tried to keep the information on each page to a minimum to not overwhelm or concern the learner. I provided mini assessments along the way that make the students use their new skills and serves as a formative assessment for me. At the end of the mini-course I also ask my students to do a reflection on what they learned and asked them to provide feedback on what they like or disliked about the mini- course so I can then adjust as needed.
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