Evaluate 3.1.2 Self-Reflection on Teaching Abilities

In the past 10 years as a teacher and as a graduate student I've learned a lot about the importance of self-reflection.  Self-reflection is an important part of being a teacher.  As I've mentioned before in this blog, being a great teacher means being willing to try new things and sometimes they work wonderfully and sometimes they fail.  Reflection is as much about learning from your mistakes as it is about pointing out your successes.  We are all learners in the classroom not just the students.  I am constantly trying to grow and evolve both in my professional and personal lives and I strive to be better while also accepting my imperfections.  I've used a lot of authentic artifacts throughout this blog and also included my e-portfolio from my Ed.S. program at UGA which contains authentic reflections and artifacts as well.

Evaluate 3.1.1 Differentiation

Amidst STEM Education Hype, NoRedInk Is On A Mission To Fix America’s Grammar Problem by Rip Empson.  26 October 2012.  http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/26/amidst-stem-education-hype-noredink-is-on-a-mission-to-fix-americas-grammar-problem/.

I'm using this heat map found online as a sample.  At a glance I notice a lot of red towards the middle of the heat map.  I would definitely see the need to review concepts on plural possessive, singular possessive, and plural nouns.  Concepts with a lot of blue like general contractions, you're vs your, letters of the alphabet, and adjectives seem to be grasped pretty well by the class as a whole.  I can also identify particular students who may be in need like Gabriel Manos and Jessenia Rushing and pinpoint which concepts they need to review.  Towanda Saterfiel is doing very well and because of that it is easy to see that she needs extra help with plurals of numbers.  I can easily send notifications and remediation to students using this heat map because I can see exactly where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

Evaluate 2.1.2 Rubrics and Competencies

I love referring to the Georgia Performance Standards website for standards, essential questions, frameworks, assignments, and assessments.  Obviously instruction should be varied and not all of the activities fit into my teaching style but it's a great starting point and really helps focus instruction.  For that reason I've chosen the following competency.  The standards and the rubric are included.  This happens to be a pretty specific competency but the student could go various routes from Skype with the instructor to recorded project to prove understanding of the content.

Evaluate 2.1.1 Data Driven Instruction, Analytics, Reporting Tools

According to the artifacts given in the quest for this course the teacher is doing a great job keeping up with stakeholder communication concerning both negative information and positive information.  Documenting communication is always necessary.

I'm not totally sure if I'm analyzing this graph correctly but the quest states that the numbers on the left correspond to the number of assignments the student has completed.  The student does access the LMS everyday and seems to consistently spend more time.  There was a lot of reviewing of material on 9/6, 9/7, and 9/9 and then time seems to lag a bit for a few days.  It seems like the student is studying for the final exam on 9/15 and 9/16 and does review all lessons in the second half, 27/59 and after.  The student also spends a lot of time throughout the 2 weeks on lesson 58/59 which may be a study guide so that's good too.  Since I'm not the teacher I don't know what lesson 26/59 is but the student spent a lot of time there as well.  I might suggest the student be more consistent with daily use and access to all lessons.  I also may suggest to the teacher that lessons 26 and 58 are the most engaging and to model future lessons after those.

For the artifact above, I think it's great that the student can keep up with their own grades and receive detailed, useful feedback.  The student can also see that an assignment is missing but that due to the 45.69/50 average they can see that this activity has not yet taken place.

Reviewing missed questions can help the student identify areas of weakness to either be reviewed or to contact the teacher for remediation.

Once again, accessing grades and feedback can allow the student to see areas of improvement and focus concentration in those areas.

Overall, the students seem to be performing well and engaged in the activities so based on what I see from these artifacts, the teacher does not need to make any adjustments to the course at this time.  Communication and feedback are executed well too.

Evaluate 1.1.3 The Summative Assessment

There is definitely a place in the classroom for standardized tests.  It was really interesting reading in this quest how to create a valid exam because looking back on some exams that I've created, some questions probably weren't very good.  For this quest I decided to use a project-based summative assessment.  I really like to look to the Georgia Performance Standards website for units of study because I know that they'll correspond to the standards.  Here is a summative assessment found on that website that I would assign to a Spanish 1 student.  I like this because it is engaging and shows that the student understands how to use the learned material in context which is very important in language learning.  I also don't really have to worry too much about security because the exam would either be recorded or take place via Skype and in both cases it's evident who's completing the task and if there is any "research" going on during the exam.  The rubric is included and I really like the idea of having students do peer grading both to learn from each other and to double check the grade offered by the instructor.

Evaluate 1.1.2 Quality Feedback

Clear and precise feedback is very important so that students can get detailed information on what they're doing correctly and where they need to improve.  I've been out of the classroom for a few years so I didn't have access to student work so I created this example:

Assignment:  Answer the following questions in complete sentences in Spanish.

1. ¿De dónde eres?
2. ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?
3. ¿Qué te gusta hacer en el verano?

Student: A.Brown

1. Yo soy de los Estados Unidos.
2. Tengo dos hermanas y dos hermanos.
3. Te gusta nadar en la piscina.

Feedback:

A. Brown, excellent job on this assignment and on answering the questions in complete sentences!

1. Your grammar, spelling, and comprehension are perfect!
2. This is great!  Remember that "hermanos" also means "siblings" so you could also answer saying "Tengo cuatro hermanos." but I like how specific you are!
3. Go back and review your notes on "gustar" and indirect object pronouns.  Remember they don't conjugate like regular verbs.  "Te" in this instance means "you" so how would you change that to answer for yourself?

Evaluate 1.1.1 Formative Assessment

Formative assessments are equally vital to instructors and students.  They are most effective when used frequently to gauge understanding before moving on to the next topic.  They can be as simple as asking students for a "thumbs up" if they understand or they can be more complex.  Here are a few quick check point formative assessments that I created for a Spanish class.

Create 4.1.3 Aggregating Lesson Material

1.  Powerful Learning Practice:  "Aggregate, Curate, and Create Your Own Textbook"  Wow!  Tons of info and resources here to get started.  You can essentially customize your textbook and save students lots of money on purchasing textbooks.

2.  Moodle:  I've had lots of experience with this CMS while in grad school at UGA.  It's a great tool for aggregating material.

3.  Angel Learning:  This is part of Blackboard and we used this while I was teaching in Forsyth County.  It's really easy for teachers, students, and parents and was a great tool.

Create 4.1.1 Define and Explain Learning Object Authoring Tools

1.  Quizworks:   This site is simple to use and instructors can quickly create a variety of quizzes for students to interact with.  It's free for up to 15 questions per quiz or you can pay to create larger assessments with analytics.  $10/month for paid option.

2.  ProProfs Quiz Maker:  This is a paid site.  There is a free option but your quizzes are made public and have ads.  I think it's a bit pricey at $19.99/month.

3.  What2Learn:  I didn't find this on my own; I found it by reading other blog posts on the forum for this quest.  It looks really cool though and free.

4.  GLO Maker:  This is free and has lots of options for creating learning objects.

5.  EdModo:  This tool is almost like an LMS.  Teachers can post assignments, calendars, and links while students can submit assignments and communicate with the teacher.  Free.

Create 4.1.2 Principles of Building Portable Learning Objects

Here's a quick formative self-assessment of a concept in beginner's Spanish: (linked and embedded)



Created on Proprofs.com

Untitled Quiz » Quiz Question Maker

This may be my new favorite tool!  Created on onlinequizcreator.com.  It's super easy and has nice graphics. This is also a quick formative self-assessment of beginning Spanish vocabulary.  (linked and embedded)

Create 3.1.3 Locating Resources

This was a HUGE eye opener.  I frequently use items found online and I always cite or at the very least link them back to the original source.  I remembered a graphic that I saw on Pinterest titled "Google Like a Boss" and easily located it when searched.  When I changed my search settings in Google to items that could be used or shared, none of these images could be found.  Bummer!!  Here are my examples all linked and cited.

This video was able to be used and shared so this is my multimedia component:

Waselnuk, Brandon.  Google Searching Like a Boss.  4 January 2013.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGWINALzuGE

Here's an image that is free to use and share:

Wikipedia contributors. “Google Logo” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 23 April  2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_logo

Here is text that is free to use and share:

Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertisingtechnologies, search, cloud computing, and software.^[6] 

Wikipedia contributors. “Google” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 7 May  2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

Create 3.1.2 Fair Use and the TEACH Act

• How does an understanding of Fair Use affect one’s role as an online instructor?

When teaching online it is especially important to make sure that items found online are used legally.  In most cases it's okay to use just about anything for educational purposes but when in doubt always give credit to the source.  When teaching online there is alway a record of what was used and said as is not the case when teaching f2f so citing references is of great importance.

• How do Fair Use and the TEACH Act correlate to the delivery of reliable content?

The TEACH Act extends Fair Use to distance education.  As mentioned above, it's especially important to cite references and "stay legal" with online instruction and although according to the TEACH Act online instructors still don't have as much leeway as f2f, most rights are granted.

Create 3.1.1 Open Educational Resources and Creative Commons

Open educational resources can be defined as "adaptable and widely available, allowing educational institutions, teachers, and learners to actively participate in a global exchange of knowledge".  Creative Commons is like a governing body providing infrastructure to these sites.

Here are the 4 types of Creative Commons licenses:

• Attribution: product can be freely redistributed as long as they give credit to the creator.
• Noncommercial: no one can use my product for profit
• No derivative works: my product can be copied and redistributed but can not be altered
• Share alike: if you use my product in an altered state, you must also be willing for others to use it and alter it if they want

Create 2.1.2 Using Web 2.0 Tools to Differentiate Teacher Instruction

I feel like I keep referring Prezi for my posts so I am trying to vary and use other Web 2.0 tools as well.  I've posted using GoAnimate, Glogster, Padlet, and many more but for this post I wanted to use an authentic lesson that I've actually used in the classroom so, again, here is my Prezi.  This is a lesson that I think is engaging, especially for younger, beginning language learners.  It is great for differentiated instruction because it is visually stimulating but not distracting, there is text, audio, video, and immediate feedback with an interactive practice exercise.

Create 2.1.3 Using Web 2.0 Tools to Differentiate Student Assessment

I love Web 2.0 tools for both brick and mortar and online classrooms.  They mix it up which makes instruction more engaging and in turn more effective.  Students love instruction with Web 2.0 tools and according to constructionism, "constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are also active in making tangible objects in the real world."  In other words, students love using Web 2.0 tools to create and learn themselves.  The options and possibilities are endless.  In the spirit of constructionism I am showing a "glog" created by a former student.  As feedback I would suggest that the student make the text a little more concise (it's a little wordy) and maybe add a video but overall I think it's great and definitely exhibits that the student was engaged in the process.

Create 2.1.1 Web Tools

I love web 2.0 tools and I am passionate about them being free.  There are so many great options out there that I refuse to pay for them so all of the tools listed in this post will be FREE.

I divided them up into 3 categories; presentation, record audio (important for language learners), and fun tools.

1.  Presentation:  These tools are great for instructors, students, and business people as well.

• Prezi: This tool is amazing, impressive, eye-catching, and easy!
• Glogster:  Students can easily create virtual poster boards that incorporate text, links, images, and video.  No more lugging a huge poster board to school on project day.
• Make Beliefs Comix:  This is a great way for students to create comic strips or for teachers to use for fun news notifications.  Great for showcasing dialogues in a language classroom.

2.  Audio:  Recording audio is a very important aspect to language learning.

• Audacity:  This tool is pretty simple to use and has a lot of customization options for those interested in delving deeper.  Only downfall is that it requires a download.  It is free and open-source though.
• Vocaroo:  It does not get any simpler than this tool for voice recording.  There is nothing on the homepage except for a button to push to begin recording.

3.  Fun:  This category consists of web 2.0 tools that are fun to use for various purposes.

• Storybird:  Using this tool you can create stunning children's books.  Great for many purposes and the graphics are beautiful.  It's easy to use but you may spend more time than necessary just playing around.
• Spotify:  I love this tool for searching for free music which can be a great learning tool in the Spanish classroom.  I've never searched for a song that they don't have.

Here's a great article by Edudemic called 10 Free Web 2.0 Tools And How To Easily Use Them In Your Classroom

Create 1.1.3 Appearance

5 sites that I love:

1. studyspanish.com:  Very organized and easy to use.  Concise but thorough Spanish lessons with interactive formative self-assessment.

2.  speakshop.org:  Great, attractive website for connecting with Spanish instructors via Skype.

3.  conjuguemos.com:  This site is just verb practice (they have German, French, Italian, Latin, and Portuguese too).  I like the subtle colors and the list format for organization.

4.  rockalingua.com:  This site is colorful and has very nice graphics but they are organized in a very simple way so as to not be distracting.

5.  nationalspanishexam.org:  Not super attractive but nice and organized.  Very credible source too.

5 sites I don't love:

1.  spanish4teachers.org:  This site has a wide range of content but it also has a lot of distractions with bright colors and unattractive fonts.

2.  123teachme.com:  This website may have some good content but it has too many ads.

3.  spanishflashcards.tripod.com:  So distracting with neon colors, unattractive fonts, over-crowded pages, and flashing colors that you immediately click off of the page.

4.  digitaldialects.com:  Solid red background is not very fun to look at.

5.  quia.com:  This is a great website and very popular for all subject matter for creating quizzes online. It's very over-crowded and there are no images to break up the content.  It's hard to use for searching for existing content but if you want to create your own it's not bad. 

Create 1.1.2 Creating a Content Map

Here's a content map I created on bubbl.us showing steps for creating my content map.

Create 1.1.1 Time Management

Here are my top 5 time management tools:

1. iCalendar:  I alway schedule important dates immediately and I check my calendar at least once per day to see any scheduled appointments and to plan my week.

2. Paperless:  This may be old fashioned but I love lists; that's why I can't live without the app, Paperless.  At least I use technology to make my lists now.  I keep grocery lists, to do lists, and much more on this app and I LOVE checking things off as I get them done.

3. Pinterest:  Pinterest is a great way to organize ideas.  I use it to keep track of shopping ideas, articles I want to read, and recipes.  I really think that this is a time saver because I don't have to try to remember where I found that lamp I liked or the baked ziti recipe.  I pinned them on Pinterest so I can access them easily which makes me more efficient.

4. Evernote:  My husband loves this app and uses it for everything.  We have a shared account so it's a great way to communicate.  It can be used almost like Pinterest and Paperless combined.  Pin websites, recipes, and products as well as make lists and more.

5. Dropbox:  I love this tool for organizing emails, documents, and photos and easily accessing them from any computer.  It's really user-friendly so I find it easier to organize than my computer's hard drive.

Communicate 4.3.1 The Synchronous Session

Synchronous sessions serve to create a "human" atmosphere for the course.  Students can interact with each other and with the instructor in real time which makes the course more enjoyable and makes them feel more connected.  I've found that even if students have already viewed the material asynchronously they can always hear and learn something new that they didn't the first time by attending a live lecture.

Communicate 4.2.3 Discussions

• What role or purpose do discussion forums serve in the online classroom and are they effective?

Discussion forums are an informal way of connecting students and allowing them to reflect and discuss ideas presented by the instructor.  They can be highly effective when used regularly and fairly.  One great way to ensure participation is to apply a grade and encourage students to be involved by setting expectations.

• How do discussion forums function as a teaching tool?

Discussion forums function as a teaching tool by connecting students.  This makes students feel more involved which in turn raises participation and course satisfaction.  My favorite part of participating in discussion forums is seeing other classmates' ideas, perspectives, questions, and concerns because it really serves to further learning and comprehension.

• How could they be used effectively and ineffectively? Furthermore, what are some best practices for facilitating forums online?

In order to be used effectively students need to first be educated on netiquette and there need to be clear expectations of when and how to post.  Discussion questions should be clear and students encouraged to remain on topic; a teacher may even set a limit on post length in order to keep students on topic.  Students should be encouraged to respond to each other's posts and to disagree respectfully.  Applying a grade and reaching out privately to students who lag in participation can also be encouraging.  The teacher should remain in the role of facilitator by remaining present but allowing ideas to unfold on their own.  They can also be used ineffectively which would be forums that lack participation, are unkind, poorly managed, or do not have clear topics for discussion.

Communicate 4.2.2 Digital Feedback

Here are 3 ways that I would use to give digital feedback:

1. I really like the idea of linking to another source to further explain a concept.  For example, for a student struggling with a certain grammar point I may link to an educational video such as this one:



2.  I think using a site like goanimate.com is a fun, easy way to provide feedback.

Communicate: feedback by ainglese2 on GoAnimate


3.  For more in depth feedback using Adobe Connect to communicate with a student is a great option as well.

Communicate 4.2.1 Feedback

1. 
   
2. Here are the standards that will be covered in this oral presentation:
   
   MLI.IP2  The students demonstrate skills necessary to sustain brief oral and written exchanges in the target language.  The students:
   A.  Initiate, participate in, and close a brief oral or written exchange.
   B.  Use formal and informal forms of address.
   C.  Demonstrate Novice-Mid proficiency in oral and written exchanges with respect to proper pronunciation, intonation, and writing mechanics. 
   
   MLI.P1  The students present information orally and in writing that contains a variety of vocabulary, phrases, and patterns.
   The students:
   A.  Present information gathered from a variety of sources such as informal conversations, class presentations, interviews, readings, and media.
   B.  Give basic information about self and others including school, family, activities, etc.
   C.  Demonstrate Novice-Mid proficiency in oral and written presentations with respect to proper pronunciation, intonation, and writing mechanics.
   
   MLI.P2  The students present brief, rehearsed material in the target language, such as dialogues, skits, poetry, and songs. The students:
   A.  Demonstrate Novice-Mid proficiency in pronunciation and intonation when presenting rehearsed material.
   B.  Demonstrate comprehension of rehearsed material.
   
   Here's the assignment:
   
   
   
   We Are Family!

   Georgia Performance Standards Framework for Spanish I Summative Performance Based Assessment 1

   Elsa is a Spanish exchange student who is attending your school for the entire year. During the day she goes to classes with the host family’s daughter here in the US. One night a week, the Spanish teacher has suggested that Elsa spend a few hours in the home of a student in the Spanish class. In the students’ home Elsa is requested to speak Spanish only to aid the English speakers with their Spanish. Tonight is your night for Elsa to be a guest in your home!
   To impress Elsa with your knowledge of your family, you pull out the group picture that you received at the last family reunion. Rather than frustrate her by telling her about everyone pictured, identify at least 3 members of your immediate family including yourself, as well as 5 members of your extended family with different relationships (i.e., aunt, or male cousin).
   For your immediate family, tell the name
   relationship to you, and
   age
   For each extended family member, tell Elsa the
   name
   relationship to you where he/she lives.
   Following this, as a courtesy, ask her 3 questions about her family. 
   
   Here's the rubric:
   

   

   
   
1. 
   

Communicate 4.1.2 Rubrics

Rubrics are vital to evaluating student work.  I think that they need to be shared with the class way ahead of time so that it is clear how students will be graded and they need to be thorough while at the same time using language that students can understand.  Oftentimes teachers like to include students in the rubric creation.  It can be difficult creating a rubric from scratch so using a website is definitely a time saver.  Sometimes the pre-made ones may not fit your needs so if you're like Goldilocks, websites like Rubistar.com are just right.  You can use their settings to create your rubric and then customize from there if necessary.  It only took me a few minutes to create this one.

Communicate 4.1.1 Evaluation Methods and Communication Practices

• How do communication practices in the online environment correlate to effective feedback?

Communication, whether is be email, voicemail, comment on a discussion post, to text, allows the student and teacher to check in and stay connected and involved in the learning process.

• Why is authentic feedback important for online learners?

Authentic feedback is especially important for online learners to make them feel included.  Lacking the F2F atmosphere and non-verbal communication, online learners can easily fade into the background or feel like they are just a number so consistent and meaningful feedback from instructors is especially important.

• In what ways might an instructor enrich a student’s online experience through feedback?

I love a lot of things about this article, Technology Integration Research: Additional Tools and Programs by Vanessa Vega .  I think it has some great ideas for using formative assessment and feedback effectively.  I really think that this answers the question on how an instructor might enrich a student's online experience through feedback:

• Checking for real-time student understanding of content being taught

• Diagnosing student misconceptions and misunderstandings

• Displaying responses of the group to trigger discussion and reflection

• Gathering formative data to guide instruction

• Saving time in administering and scoring quizzes

• Introducing and monitoring peer learning methods

Communicate 3.2.2 Differentiation

It's always imperative in education to consider accommodating different learning styles and disabilities. Especially with online education a great way to do that is to vary techniques and engage learners with graphics, audio, video, and interactive tools.  It's a great idea to incorporate text and audio when possible to modify for students with hearing and/or vision disabilities.

Here are 3 awesome interactive tools that I have used for differentiated instruction:

1. Prezi:  the first time I saw Prezi I was in a workshop on a staff development day.  It blew my mind!  The presentation was so engaging and put together I thought that the instructor must have been a technological genius and that it must have taken him days to put together his seamless presentation.  I now know that it didn't but I would love it if people viewed me the way I viewed him that day.  For that reason I love Prezi.  Here's a presentation I created as an introduction to numbers for a Spanish 1 class.  It incorporates audio, video, text, and an interactive game so I think it's a great example of differentiation.

2.  Wordle:  Here's a Wordle that I created for a previous quest:

3. Padlet:  I created this homepage example using padlet.

Communicate 3.2.1 The Newsletter

Newsletters should be brief and engaging.  They need to be eye catching enough to be noticeable but not so busy as to be distracting.  The purpose is to convey important information like upcoming due dates, social events, and school related items.  For my three artifacts I tried all new (to me) highly effective modes of communication.  The first one shown in this post was created on thinglink.com, email, and I then used smore.com to create a newsletter.

I used thinglink.com to create this newsletter with important upcoming assignment due dates.  This was my first attempt with this and I definitely think that I could use more time to play around with it but I love the aspect of adding various types of media (images and video) to one single newsletter.  Hover over the image and click on the white and black circles to view the news item.



Here is an example of a weekly email I may send out to stakeholders:

Buenos días!
We have a busy month coming up so I wanted to highlight a few items so that you can plan ahead.
Final Exams:  Will be the week of 5/22.  You have one exam each day so check with your individual course teachers to find out the specific dates.  Spanish will be 5/23!Prom: Prom is on Saturday 5/3 this year.  Ticket are on sale now.  The cost is $50 per person or $80 per couple.  You must be a junior or senior to purchase tickets.
Summer Courses: Registration for summer courses is currently available.  Not all courses are offered.  There is a 4 week or 6 week option.  Contact your advisor with any questions.
Gracias!!!
Sra. Inglese

Here is a Smore.com newsletter that I created for a previous quest:

Communicate 3.1.2 News

As an online instructor, how do you plan to incorporate news items and announcements? 

News Items and announcements need to be used regularly in the online classroom; more than once/week.  They should be clear, eye-catching and engaging so that students notice them and pay attention.

What resources would you reference to format news items? 

I love Animoto.com for creating videos and love this example of a video News Item.  I've used Zamzar.com a lot in the classroom for converting files and saving educational YouTube videos so that they can be viewed at school without firewall prohibitions.

I used GoAnimate.com to create this graphic video News Item.  It was very quick and easy and my favorite part is that I was able to add voice by using a text to voice option!  I love this because I don't always like hearing my own voice and it can be challenging to find a quiet moment at my house to record things.  I was able to choose a language and even the country where the speaker is from.  So cool!!

Here's my example:

Communicate by ainglese2 on GoAnimate

Communicate 3.1.1 Homepages Quest

This was created on Padlet.com

Communicate 2.1.3 Ongoing Communication

Ongoing communication is especially important in an online classroom because verbal communication is not as constant as in a face-to-face classroom.  In a brick and mortar school there are regularly opportunities for a quick "great job" or verbal reminder.  These opportunities exist in the online classroom as well but must be a bit more deliberate and mindful.  In an online classroom, especially a very large one like a MOOC, it's easy for a student to blend into the background and feel like a "number".  Constant communication and personalized notes make the student feel more involved which enhances participation, motivation, and success.

I really like Smore.com for creating engaging flyers that can be used as newsletters, presentations, or event reminders.  Here's an event reminder that I created.

Communicate 2.1.2 Communication Guidelines

• Welcome email

A welcome email should contain a nice, enthusiastic message to students and parents as well as information about the instructor and the course.  This letter should be very informative making students and parents feel like they're "in the know" and ease any anxieties about starting a new course.  This email is typically followed by a phone call to each family a few days later.

• Personal notes versus mass communication to stakeholders

Periodically sending mass communications via email, text, or voicemail are certainly informative and necessary.  Mass communications would be used as reminders of due dates or other general course information.  Anything concerning grades, concerns, or personal information should definitely be taken care of with a personal note or phone call.  Documenting exchanges is usually a good idea as well.  I always keep a log to remind myself of past correspondence as well as a folder where I can save emails.

• Stakeholders

Stakeholders are encouraged to initiate communication as well.  Students and parents are encouraged to be active participants and to keep up with grades and assignments while communicating with the instructor about questions and/or concerns.

• School Policies regarding Communication

FERPA guidelines should always be followed in regards to communication.  

• Tools available for effective Communication

Dial My Calls, Remind 101, the school LMS, Smore; these are great examples of commonly used tools for communication.

Communicate 2.1.1 Identify Stakeholders

• Do the descriptions correlate to your perception?

Yes, I like how much emphasis and responsibility is put on the students to initiate and maintain communication as well as the encouragement of parents to be active participants in their child's education.

• How can they be expanded upon or described further?

It is a communicate quest but there could be more information added into other duties of the stakeholders outside of communication.  

• Are there other stakeholders within an online environment not considered above?

I would add any person who may invest money into the program, school board members, elected officials, and/or any community members who may have interest in the program.

Communicate 1.1.2 Laws of Communication

• How can one refrain from violating FERPA guidelines in online communication?

I think the best way is to be overly cautious.  Never share students' grades publicly or without permission and keep comments to student work private as well.  When in doubt, conversation with the student and/or parents face-to-face or on the phone is preferable.

• What methods could be employed to verify that copyright is not being violated?

Emphasize with students to always cite their work.  I probably cite way more than I need to just to make sure that all of my bases are covered.  Education on policy for teachers and students is key as well.  Then there are always websites like turnitin.com where teachers can scan to see if students have plagiarized; I think it's best to try to prevent this from happening in the first place.

• Does copyright require that all work, images, words, and graphics must be original?

According to Merriam-Webster the definition of copyright is:

the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something (as a literary, musical, or artistic work)

In other words, use for educators in the classroom, especially if they receive federal funding, is usually permitted.

Communicate 1.1.1 Definitions of Communication

• How have your individual communication skills changed as with the innovations in technology?

I'm am definitely guilty of texting way too much!  I am pretty much constantly texting someone and it annoys my husband a lot.  It's just so convenient and with my two young kids I can't complete a conversation anyways or sometimes I need a quiet home so it's much easier to text my friends and family.  I think that I communicate more though because I really dislike talking on the phone so I actually keep up with people better with the ability to text.  I am part of a few different social media outlets and do use private messaging there.  I think it's a great informal way to make new friends without the awkward phone number exchange.  When I meet a new neighbor or something I can just friend them on Facebook and send a message if I want to invite them over for a glass of wine.  I'm not a huge participant in commenting publicly on people's posts as I don't really want people I don't know to see the comment.

• How have advancements in technology altered classroom communication? Will these change further?

Schools are constantly faced with the dilemma of allowing cell phones at school.  Obviously there's no way to keep them out but they can be hugely distracting to students.  At the same time, they can be really useful learning tools but teachers are very timid to use them either due to lack of administrative support or because they feel it may be a slippery slope to overuse in ways that are not course related.  While reading the 101 Email Etiquette Tips I realized that students really need formal training on how to write an email.  I once had students participate in a contest of sorts and they had to send an email to a book editor.  I hadn't really considered that I would need to tell them to use complete sentences that begin with a capital letter and end in punctuation!  Many of their emails were composed like text messages.  I quickly learned that they would need specific instruction on email etiquette.  Technology will definitely change further in regards to classroom communication.  There are so many tools available now that didn't even exist 5 or 10 years ago.  I've been out of the formal classroom for only 3 years and the idea of using Pinterest in the classroom is new to me.  I don't think that many of us can even predict where we're headed.

Navigate 4.1.1 Trend Impact

In my opinion mobile learning is going to have the biggest impact on digital learning over the next five years.  People, especially young people, are addicted to their phones and tablets.  It's kind of a horrible habit but I constantly have my phone in my hand and have to make a concerted effort to put it down at times when I want to be free of distraction.  It's just so amazing though; I can call people but why would I even bother when I can communicate with friends and family in more entertaining ways like text, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.  There's an app for everything and the whole point of digital learning is that it's more convenient so why wouldn't it explode on mobile devices?

Navigate 3.2.1 Tools for Deciding on an LMS

For this quest I have chosen to categorize LMS tools that best serve the K-12 scenario due to the fact that I primarily teach in the K-12 setting.
One of the main concerns for K-12 is cost.  The majority of users would be public schools which don't have a ton of extra funding to spend on expensive commercial LMSes so finding an affordable option would be key.  Through my research I found the top LMSes for K-12 education to be (not necessarily in order):
1. Moodle
2. Sakai
3. Canvas
4. Blackboard
5. Haiku
Here's a pretty interesting comparison chart I found on the Canvas website:

I also really like this video by Blackboard that I found on LinkedIn.

Navigate 3.1.4 LMS Reporting

The idea of grades and analytics is a really interesting one.  Education is so driven by grades and testing that one of the most common complaints about American education is focus on standardized testing as opposed to focus on learning.  However, quantitative data is one essential tool used to measure learning, success, comprehension, whatever it may be.  As Sir Ken Robinson Ph.D. discussed in his Ted Talk, education has changed so rapidly in the past century with the use of technology.  Prior to technology and LMS it would have been virtually impossible to compute the type of data that we now have access too (especially for 500 students or more).  It gives students a glimpse of where they stand in a course, it allows teachers to identify strengths and weaknesses and to tailor instruction to what works, and it allows administrators to measure teacher success.  

What are the options for grade reporting? 

I joined Canvas as my LMS and it has a lot of great options for entering grades and utilizing data.  I found a few guides on the website to help get started.  
First is "How do I enter and edit scores in the Gradebook?" and the other is "How do I use Speedgrader ™?  Here's how Canvas describes their unique tool "Speedgrader ™:

The SpeedGrader™ allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric. Canvas accepts a variety of document formats and even URLs as assignment submissions. Some document assignments can be marked up for feedback directly within the submission. You can also provide feedback to your students with text or media comments.

Are there various levels? 

Student level:  Students can check grades, receive grade notifications and even see "what-if" grades which allow them to calculate how grades will be affected by certain scores.

Teacher level:  This was taken from the Canvas website:

You can use SpeedGrader™ to:

• Sort submissions by student and hide student names for anonymous grading
• Evaluate assignments for each student, including resubmitted assignments
• Use rubrics to assign grades
• Leave feedback for your students
• Track your grading progress and hide assignments while grading

Course level and Program level:  Analytics are a big part of Canvas as part of the admin role.  With this tool you can "track and analyze what students, teachers, observers, and/or designers are doing within the account."  According to Canvas, "Analytics evaluate individual components of all the courses in your account and provide an overview of your account's activity."  For this reason I decided to combine course and program because I think they can kind of go together even though from an admin perspective analytics are more on the program level.  Check out this link where Canvas answers the question, "What are Analytics?"  It's a really great definition.

Program level:  See course level.

Which levels remain most valuable for the online instructor in regard to student performance? 
In regards to student performance, I think that students need to be able to view their grades.  Most online learners and higher ed learners are pretty intrinsically motivated so I think that their own check points and immediate feedback will help propel motivation and performance.

Navigate 3.1.3 Tools Within the LMS

After reading the article, Why Tech Training is a Waste of Time, I began to think about the LMS a little more dynamically.  Many teachers use tech tools for administrative purposes such as calendar and notes but it takes a few things to really get the most out of the LMS.  One of these things is training.  Teachers are busy and don't really have a lot of time to spend playing around with a new tool without a guarantee that their time will pay off.  Encouraging a community of life-long learners means that teachers need training on what they can do within the LMS, why they should do it, how it will help them teach, and how it will help students learn.  Teachers need to be patient, courageous, and open-minded in order to allow for pedagogical progress.

List each tool available within the LMS.
The LMS that I chose to join, Canvas, has assignments, grades, and calendar as well as more interactive tools such as discussions, modules, and conferences.  See image.

Which tools would be most valuable in the online classroom?   Which would be of least value?
They are all of equal value.  The most obvious would be administrative tools such as assignments, files, and calendar but when using the LMS to its full capacity, there would be ample room for dynamic instruction with the use of more pedagogical tools such as discussions and modules.

Navigate 3.1.2 Creation and Investigation Into Courses

Of the free software programs for creating a course shell I chose Canvas.  The reason I chose this one is that I really liked the interface, found it well organized, simple, and pleasant to look at.  I also really like Blackboard and Moodle but I have previous experience with those so I wanted to gain experience in a new (to me) program as well.
I found it extremely simple to begin my course.  I registered as an instructor and began a course called "TOOL Portfolio".  Within that course I created a module called "Digital Citizenship" where I began to upload content from the "Introduction to Digital Citizenship" module created by GaVS.  I found it to be a bit slow (I'm waiting for a video to upload now).  

It definitely takes some organization to get the course shell and the module in functioning order.  There are a lot of options as far as where to place assignments, images, files, videos, quizzes, and assignments so finding the most logical order and making sure that the information is clear and easy to follow may take some tweaking.  Other than slow downloads (SO annoying!) it was pretty easy and straightforward.  

What were those steps? 
First I created a new course.  There is then a side bar with information clearly listed (see image).  By clicking on the item I can easily add information to my course and students can navigate easily.

Is it important to follow these steps? 
I would say that it is somewhat important to follow the steps but it's really easy to go back and forth to edit material as well.