Friday Review

One of the goals I set for myself this semester was to reflect on my learning each Friday. I have four core courses that I am taking and each week I plan to review my class and reading notes and write a paragraph about what has impressed me in each class.

1. Distance Education.

One thing that has stayed with me is an insight from a Robyn Williams article in which once she learned about a "Joshua Tree" she saw it everywhere she looked, though previously she thought she had never seen it before. Williams states, "Once you can name something you have power over it." This quote was used (I believe) to illustrate the power of theories. Once we see and understand certain theories we can then use them in various frameworks. The main framework we discussed this past week was the industrialization (mass production and delivery) of education. I appreciated Dr. Graham's comment pointing out that with the technological tools that we have, mass production/delivery do not necessarily need to be in conflict with personalization. I'm interested in learning more about these tools.

2. Open Education

The SLAM analysis of openness had an impact on me. In my efforts to be "open" thus far I have been sort of a "closed open person." Meaning that I am not doing everything I can do to make things easy to revise and remix. My openness has been to post .pdf files which may not be as easily editable as other formats. As I hope to take part in encouraging others to be more open with the materials they have authored I need to help them see that there are levels to openness. I also want to record that I was touched by a prayer offered in this class and believe that because of my publishing with Deseret Book I may be able to help influence openness in certain LDS markets that may be beneficial for others.

3. Assessment

This class really intrigues me because I believe the topic is so important. This week we discussed Bloom's Taxonomy, which I have studied before, but not analyzed in terms of measurement. I am chagrined to see that a lot of what I test for is fact-recall and look forward to the assignments that will help me to tweak this. Also in this class I have used I-Clickers for the first time and I really see the power of these as teaching tools. Perhaps BYU should raise tuition $8.00 for student and provide all freshmen with one.

4. Research and Statistics

I really like the textbook for this class. The writers give clear examples that are both interesting and easy to follow. The assignment for this class to conduct research is exciting and I have already started working on my IRB proposal. This class in fact starts in a few minutes and so I must pass on the opportunity of writing more about it at the moment.