Dr. Ruth Reynard

Dr. Ruth Reynard

Location: fayette, oh

About me

I founded a non-profit, Community Education for Development (CED) to focus on developing programs for communities in Fayette and Fulton Co OH that focus on education for development.  The website is: https://www.comeddev.com/

I also work as a freelance education consultant and a second language evaluator. I enjoy publishing articles and editing publications. My website is: www.drruthreynard.com

Interests

instructional design and development and program development.

Skills

faculty training / writing / editing / teaching / curriculum development / instructional technology

Activity

Discussion Comment
Good ideas, Chris. A fairly major concept to explore with this technology is its potential to provide students with the ability to self-direct class work (therefore customizing the experience) as well as directly share the distribution of learning through capturing and distibuting the exchange.
Discussion Comment
Yes, Chris, Wikis provide a great collaborative tool. Try blogs sometime as a tool for self reflection or journaling. I have used it successfully with students to create an ongoing annotated bibliography of relevant texts (with graduate students0. It helps students to track their own thinking more systematically through a course.
Discussion Comment
Hi Stephanie, Yes, students have direct access to information, and as a result, much more control over the learning experience. How do you feel this challenges conventional ideas about the role of the teacher?
Yes, Chris, great ideas here. I encourage you in your focus on problem solving over multiple choice questions or yes/no questions. I like your idea about essays and I would suggest debates in class or presentations that require students to persuade others of their ideas and defend their thoughts. This develops strong verbal skills as well.
Great approach - posing problems for students is a good way to involve students in the process. When handling a lot of information that you feel is either redundant or irrelevant it is important to treat it as information only...not knowledge construction. While most teachers stick with the information only and evaluate the momorization of that information only, students are not developed into critical thinkers or problem solvers, or knowledge workers. As you continue to focus on problem solving, how can you move your students past information exchange and into knowledge contstruction?
Discussion Comment
Great ideas...the main point is that students can be given the opportunity to self-direct and achieve learner autonomy.

Ah yes...pre-set standards!! I hear your pain :) It is my contention that higher education is now being compromised by the same standardization that has stiffled K-12 education for years. All higher education, vocational included, must retain its focus on critcal thinking, exploration of thought and higher order thinking in order for students to truly grow as learners. So, what to do? Well, of course none of us can take on an entire system single-handedly, however we can at least make the decision that any standards we are expected to meet with our students are only a starting place rather… >>>

Indeed it does - individuality is being addressed more and more through customized courses and customized programs and indeed customized diplomas or degrees...students are searching for what they need. I think teachers/instructors must get their heads around that and become proficient in managing networks of learners rather than the conventional idea of classes of students. Do you agree? If that is so, then how are institutions also challenged?
Discussion Comment
I agree, Chris. Content does not need to be "packaged" as in the earlier days of distance learning but students shoudl be given access to various resources and equipped with skills to know how to organize, summarize, and apply the information to their own learning. This completely changes the conventional idea of course content. How has this "opened up" the teaching possibilities with your students?
So, in a technology-mediated or delivered environment, teachers can focus more on actually "teaching" and helping students succeed. Good points!

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