[I did this over the summer holidays and was going to edit it and make it better. I haven't edited it, but I thought I would publish it anyway...]
So, I thought it would be a good idea to see if there were examples of good practice with Google sites, or at least some cool ones I could look at so that I could see how to do the Google Site thing better, cooler, more effectively, more efficiently.
This has proven somewhat difficult.
I also want to find out more about good instructional design and that stuff follows after the Google stuff. It kinda all goes together.
Note: this is really just the beginning of my journey to find more of an understanding of how to create a learning environment, hopefully well.
Google
Via Google's own Google Sites help pages and forums I found some examples of school, class, community and commercial sites. But to tell you the truth I didn't find any that were better than the one I created for Classics at High, Classical High.
Perhaps it is because the others didn't fit the mould I want for Classical High, perhaps I had too high expectations, perhaps I didn't serach very well and perhaps I gave up too soon. I don't know.
Some places I looked:
and I did other Google searches
It is very difficult for me to say that my site is the best one I have seen, because I am positive it is not the best and I want to learn how to do it better. I don't think I did it well because I did it on the run, without any overall design or scheme, and most of it was last minute. I didn't put practices in place for students to contribute to the site easily and regularly, which was the point. Nor did I encourage the social aspect enough.
Instructional Design
I went to this site (http://www.instructionaldesign.org/) and watched the YouTube clip of the interview with Richard Culatta, which was interesting.
He says in it that:
- to be careful with the kinds of interactions we design
- Avoid dumping content
- we learn not from engaging with the content alone, but through social interactions based on the content
- referenced Michael Moore - educational researcher. he said effective online learning happens with three basic interactions - learner/content, learner/expert, learner/learner. Consider how much to use of each and why? To what effect?
- Interactions not determined by the tools we use, but the quality of how the tool is set up and used
I don't think any of what he said was new, but it is good to be reminded of it.
He did also suggest using FaceBook, Twitter, wikis, blogs, etc. I'm in two minds here. While I really see the value of using these tools and networks, I want to keep it fairly simple. I think too many things for the students to use makes learning harder, not more difficult, just overloaded.
My possibly unrealistic idea is to have all of that incorporated into our subject site, in one form or another.
There is obviously heaps more out there on Instructional Design, Google, etc, but I haven't yet devoted much time to it and so it is all confusing to me at this stage, so...
I've decided to use my existing understanding and try to define all this for myself.
Good websites for learning and education:
- Look attractive, are interesting and engaging, and aesthetically support learning (colours, layout, etc)
- Are easy to navigate
- Meet the purposes and needs to the creators and users
- Are not too text heavy
- Are interactive
- Have a strong social element
- Are co-authored by educators and students
- Should form part of a shared community - i.e. not class sites, but subject sites
- Allow users to create, collaborate and critique
- Be organic - constant state of growth, change, review, refinement...
- Protect the learning of the learner = if the learner is expressing ideas, etc in order to progress through their learning then they should not feel restricted by outside criticism. Learners should feel safe to learn through success and failure (for want of a better word)
For today's learners, I think the social part is most important for learning to be most valuable and lasting. So what do I mean by "Social"?
Social is everything. Pictures, videos, discussions, chats, commenting, text, networking, sharing, collaborating, creating...
But none of these things on its own. Combination (logical and purposeful combination, that is) is one key. Interactivity is the other key.
Instructional Design... hmmm
This, I don't know much about, other than the little I have read, what I've tried and what I do in my own teaching and learning design.
I think this is where teaching processes and environments are designed, usually using research on learning and learning theory, to maximise learning potential and effect.
To do this, I think the following needs to be considered:
- The learners - specific details like age, gender, personalities, learning styles, skill levels, existing knowledge...
- the content needing to be learnt for curriculum and/or assessment purposes
- The skills needed - existing and yet to be acquired
- Tools available to facilitate the learning
- Learner construction of learning - how do you want to learn this? etc
- Inquiry element
- Social element
- Evaluation
- Allows teacher to facilitate learning through discovery and dialogue, rather than instruction and content - hence I have issues with this idea being called "instructional design"
Classical High
I know the 2010 version of CH is clunky and has heaps of pages and could be overwhelming for the students.
I find it difficult to find the time and mind-space to make it all the things I want it to be and find all the things I want it to have.
Some of those things are:
- A social feel, but with a focused learning vibe
- A place where students can explore their learning, together and feel OK about sharing their learning experiences. For this to happen it cannot be public.
- Engaging content, design and interactivity
- The site to be organic in design, content and structure
- Co-created by me and students
- Defined by students' learning needs
- A place for all Classics students, not just one class and not just seniors.
- Class notes, etc - of course. Though I would like to make sure the notes are easy and attractive for students to access in terms of their learning.
- Embedded resources, rather than linked wherever possible. (according to a survey I was quoted at some point 80% of users who link outside of the original page get distracted and don't return in that session. I want to avoid this.)
- Libraries of Google Books and Wikisource texts for each topic and for general knowledge, also YouTube clips, though I'm not sure whether to embedd all of those or just the ones I want them to focus on and put the extras in a library (using the list page function)
- Games and quizzes
- Discussion forums - general ones and topic and subtopic ones
- Picture galleries
- Skills information - essay writing, exam technique, bibliography and avoiding plagiarism, research skills, reading techniques, note-taking, etc
I want to avoid:
- Dumping learning content
- Having a boring site
- Overloading
- Doing too much of it myself and making it too time consuming for me (because that could become impossible)
My next step will be to come up with some learning and design principles for my site and then put them into practice.
