Hello Everyone –
Today starts the first week of Unit 3, where our focus is on ways of organizing for digital learning. As discussed at our last synchronous session (slide deck attached), the main activity in Unit 3 is our debate, which begins formally on May 11 with initial arguments posted by the Pro and Con teams kicking it off and then runs through till May 18. I will create the threads for these first two arguments later this week, but please wait until May 11 to post the initial pro and con arguments. Once these are posted, I will create threads for the rebuttal posts.
As outlined in the Schedule on our course WordPress site, this first week of Unit 3 your tasks are as follows:
- Complete Unit 3 readings and reflection,
- Create your visual network - Unit 3 Activity 1 (scroll to see the description) and of course,
- Continue to refine your blog
- Continue your work enacting your digital identity and digital presence plan coming out of Unit 2.
In addition, don't forget to continue to comment on others’ blog posts - remember, the default setting on your blog is to "moderate comments" so if you have kept that setting on, you will need to "approve" the comment before it can be seen on the blog site. Just a reminder to do this in a timely manner so folks who have commented can see their comment and "know" it went through and they posted correctly.
Tips on the Debate:
For those of you who are already looking ahead to the Debate, here are some thoughts to consider. You have all been put into teams which you can find by going to Moodle and looking under Participants, My Teams. Here is the debate statement that we will be using for this year's debate.
Be it resolved that all digital learning environments are equal and can be created and managed as such.
In terms of flow for our debate, the Pro, Con and Judgment team can connect to plot and plan in a way that works for your team – perhaps a google doc, one of the tools you used in The Link or in the private team discussions forum in the Moodle site. It is up to your team what works best for everyone.
When you connect as a team, you need to have discussions about the key points that you think are important to make by your side of the debate as a group, prior to the debate going live. There is some time set aside in the Schedule to do this (May 04 – 10) but you are welcome to have these conversations sooner. Don’t forget, you can also always reach out to the RRU team coach associated with your program if you think it would be helpful to connect on tips for approaching a team assignment. You can find more team resources on Teamwork here. It is expected that the readings (Unit 2 & 3) completed to date in the course as well as the Virtual Symposium will be drawn upon to inform the backing and rationale for the arguments presented, but you are also encouraged to seek other relevant scholarly sources.
For the Pro and Con teams, after you have met, discussed, and made a "plan of attack" as a group, you will need to create, edit, revise and post initial arguments and rebuttals according to the days/times in the Schedule. Teams are each responsible for crafting their piece according to the Assignment 2 requirements and posting them to the Assignment 2 Debate Forum (Class) Debate Happens Here in Moodle according to the dates outlined in the course schedule.
If you are on the Judgement team, your initial task is to determine what framework you will use to evaluate the debate - the rubric that is associated with this assignment is a great starting point for your conversations and you may decide that you need to review other debate judgement frameworks to then determine what, how, and if you will revise the rubric. You will need to let us know what the rubric is that the judgement team is using to evaluate the debate by May 06. You can do so by posting a message in the Ask the Instructor forum in Moodle so that all will be notified.
I am looking forward to getting the debate started on May 11. In the meantime, enjoy the Unit 3 readings and associated Unit 3 readings and reflection, and the Unit 3 Activity 1 visualization of your network. As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
Have a great week!
Russ