Unit Proposal Notes

Thanks for many of you shared your unit ideas with me!  Here are the notes to share with you to help you to improve your unit proposal, design, and development.

Q: What the unit may look alike?

A: Our units should integrate Network Learning Environments and Connectivism to create, to facilitate collaborative learning community.  The community you intend to create should allow community members to create, to share contents and participate interactive activities through various Web 2.0 tools.

In fact, ETC647 itself is an example of Open Network Learning environments, such as

• Use unique tags (Social Tagging Architecture) to share distributed learning resources on Delicious
• Learners create and contribute learning contents for other learners: AT15 Lesson Content Developments
• Learners manage their own learning content and activities: iGoogle, RSS

Q: Our unit must be a course?

A: No.  Our units do not need to as a course.  In fact, it can be an informal learning community

Q: Since we do not create unit content, what do we need to focus on?

A: Although we, as instructional designer, do not create most of unit content, we need to create and to design effective "instructions" and "activities" as network learning architectures to engage community members to engage in creating and sharing contents.  Simply ask community members to create and to share would not result in effective ONLE.  We need to engage them in effective "instructions and activities."  This is the area we need to spend time to think more and to design.

Q: I am taking both ETC647 and ETC677 this semester. Or I took ETC677 previous, & ETC647 this semester.  How are the differences between ETC647 and ETC677 units?  So the differences are just integrating different tools (CMS vs. Web 2.0)?

A: ETC677 unit has very clear content to instruct while ETC647 unit is to develop ONLE to allow community members to participate, to contribute, to assess, and to evaluate content.  Here are two examples to assist you to clarify and to assist you to develop you unit proposals and your units.

For ETC677 Unit

To teach teachers on how to integrate four different Web 2.0 tools into their teachings (Wiki, Blog, Delicious, & Twitter)

• The contents and instructions are on CMS (BBLearn) & instructors create & organize them.
• Instructors create online contents: such as online wiki/blog tutorials, online video etc. & online resources/links.
• Online instructions: Online group work etc. occurred on CMS.

For ETC647 Unit

Integrating Web 2.0 tools (Wiki, Blog, Delicious, & Twitter to create and to facilitate a ONLE to support teachers to share teaching tools, teaching instructions, and lesson plan etc.

• The content is created & shared by teachers (target audiences) on any of Web 2.0 tools
• The instructions and activities are created by you to engage teachers in ONLE to create, to share, and to learn.
• Online instruction examples: Integrate Delicious tag (you design a social tagging architecture) to share teaching resources; Integrate Twitter to share, to announce, to discuss any content/topics.
• ETC647 course instructions and content is an example of unit.  The content is developed by groups of students and the instructions are developed by the instructor/facilitator.

If you think the differences between ETC677 and ETC647 are the tools.  You will need to rethink four components of technology integrations: Content, Delivery Technology, Instructional strategies, and Assessment.

	ETC647	ETC677
Content	Whatever you intend to instruct
Delivery Technology	Web 2.0 tools (not all computer tools considered as Web 2.0.)	CMS/LMS, Static Web pages
Instructional strategies	ONLE/PLE instructional strategies/Distributed learning strategies (Focus more on ONLE/PLE): Social tagging, UGC, social content sharing, community-community interaction etc.	Distributed learning strategies (Online collaboration, four types of interaction, student publishing, online resources etc.)
Assessments	To assess: Content; Delivery technology; Instructional strategies