EDU651 Week Two Assignment

Wow, this has been a great week. I learned more than I ever thought I would about Wikis. I would not have ever considered using a Wiki as a learning event however Wikis are a great way of sharing ideas and collaborating with a group of peers or other learners on projects, events or online learning.

I read chapter 1 through chapter 6 of, Using wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web by J.A. West and M. L. West (2009). This book is easy to read and presents some very compelling reasons to use a wiki in an online environment.

Wikis hold great promise for online learning and collaboration however; instructors should avoid pitfalls that can derail learning. A few pitfalls that I will look out for are:

• Avoid building an entire course within a wiki. This practice is not recommended and instructors should combine other tools such as blogs and discussion threads to help stimulate ideas and opinions in the online classroom. Have a clear plan of how you want students to interact with one another and what outcomes you want from the content. A wiki may not contribute to the growth and development that you are looking for in your students.
  
• Avoid regulating users to editing only their own work. The idea is for users to collaborate and learn from others and instructors and the group should relinquish ownership and control of the wiki. Providing students with etiquette guidelines can relieve some of the conflict that may arise when peer editing takes place.
  
• Finally, instructors should recognize the learning differences and styles of their students. In a corporate environment for example, the participants can be a mix of Millenials and adult learners and these groups will have different skills and learning goals. Instructors should recognize these differences and develop learning events that will work for all participants.
  

I am looking forward to creating my wiki event that will be presented in week 4 of our class. The contextual application will focus on a team challenge that will be based on products and services learned in class.

The challenge to this type of learning project is that learners could become too competitive rather than developing selling strategies that will benefit them once they are in their stores.

Wish me luck on this project. If it works, I may be able to introduce it to my team.

 

Reference

West, J.A. & West, M.L. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration: The power of the read-write web. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

 

My Teaching Style

As a corporate trainer, I am responsible for ensuring that all the participants have the attitude, skill and knowledge to be successful on the job.  The results of the Grasha-Reichmann Inventory show that my teaching style is equally balanced in all areas.  I am moderate in Expert, Formal Authority, Personal Model and Facilitator and high as a Delegator. 

Our participants are newly hired retail sales consultants, sales support representatives, finance representatives and store management.  I am a former store manager and therefore very familiar with the environment where these participants will be working. 

As a formal authority teacher, I am focused on content and feel responsible for providing and controlling the flow of the content.  My students are expected to receive the content and see the importance of the material and appreciate their roles in the stores. 

I am also a facilitator and my focus is on activities and student centered learning.  There is more responsibility on the participants to learn and this teaching style works best for those who are comfortable with independent learning and actively participate and collaborate with other students.  This is a must in their work environment because although they work individually to achieve goals, they also work as a cohesive team to service customers and achieve store goals.   Activities are useful in active learning, student to student collaboration and problem solving.  These are all important skills when working with customers and the course content must be applied back on the job.

The highest teaching style is delegator.  This is so true in our classrooms.  We have 4 weeks with the retail sales consultants.  They must be responsible for their learning because when they get to their stores, the expectation is that they know how to use systems and resources, understand our products and services and interact with customers.  A delegator gives students a choice of implementing their own complex learning projects and acts as a consultant.  The participants are asked to work in groups or alone and they must maintain motivation and manage various interpersonal roles. 

Finally, I am a personal model demonstrating the behaviors and skills that the learners must use back on the job.  The curriculum calls for role plays on each step of the sales experience such as how to greet customers, building rapport, questioning strategy to understand customer needs and so on.  In the classroom, I model the behavior and then the participants practice and are coached and guided to ensure they can model the behavior as well.

In a corporate environment, Instructors face various learning styles in every class whether it is a one day course or a 20 day course.  Our advantage is that our curriculum is designed to meet the needs of every learning style with a little lecture, activities for large and small groups, individual activities, teach backs and web-based training and debrief.   As instructors, we are conscious of the fact that every participant has a unique learning style however; our mandate is to deliver the curriculum as written.  This is done for a couple of reasons; 1) for equity/legal reasons to ensure that every participant receives the same information and everyone has the same opportunity to be successful in their position and; 2) because we have a lot of information to cover in a short period of time.  However, it does not mean that we can’t have our own personal teaching style.  We spend time developing this competency to ensure we meet the needs of our participants. 

I completed the online learning styles inventory and the results tell me that I am balanced in both dimensions of the scale scoring 1-1 on the scale.  I lean toward being reflective meaning I like to think things through first.   I also lean towards sensing.  I know this is true because I am a bottom line person.  Don't worry about softening me up first, just give me the facts.  I enjoy solving problems using a methodical process and I frequently check my work.  I am not so good with abstracts or theories but I do like hands on learning and I need to know real world application.   The inventory also told me that I am verbal and I do enjoy written words and explanations.  I take great notes on conference calls and when collaborating with peers, I can always refer back to my notes.  This helps to keep us on track with our tasks.  Finally, I lean towards global learning.  I need the big picture first but sometimes that can get me in trouble if I don’t understand the what, where, when and why behind the story.  

I viewed the video conversation with Dr. Felder at Cal State Dominguez and he discussed his research on learning styles.  He mentioned that instructors can be sensing or intuitive and need to have a good balance in their own learning style in order to work with all students.  It is impossible for an instructor to adapt his or her style to each student’s style and students must have a good balance to get the most out of their educational experience.  For this reason, it is a good idea if students understand how they like to learn to get the most out of their educational experience. 

My First Blog

I have avoided Twitter, Facebook and MySpace simply because I didn't have the time or desire to be online 24/7 but look at me today; I have created a blog.  Creating a blog will help me better understand how this form of communication might be used in the virtual classroom.  Technology makes it possible for teachers to deliver instruction in many ways and blogging may be another element that can be used in the classroom.  Blogs can influence our moral and political thinking.  Blogs allow us to share our daily experiences with others and blogs can be entertaining.  I am hoping to learn a lot from blogging and share some of my expereince with others.  Thanks for your time.