OER: Reading Out Loud, Reading While Listening, Big Data & Learning Analytics!

This was a very informative take on your topic. I found the activities where we were to read silently, ROL and RWL really opened my eyes to the differences and benefits of the different approaches. I also really enjoyed reading the books for the schools! I'm a bit of a performer so this inspired me. I accessed this resource today after going through the content earlier in the week and was pleased to see that you had implemented some changes to the technical difficulties that were pointed out earlier in the week. Great to see your OER evolving and becoming stronger.

Hi Aaron, Thank you for a wonderful week of learning about Reading While Listening. Working through your website and seeing all that you have accomplished, it is clear that this is your passion. Thank you for sharing that with us. I ran into a few technical difficulties (I was unable to read to a school, and permission to a few forms was not granted) but as a whole the website was easy to navigate and was chalk full of information. This was my reflection from one of your forms: “I think that the relationship between reading out loud, listening while reading, big data, and learning analytics, is that they can all be used to help support students’ learning. All four of these different and distinct areas can build upon each other to help support each student’s learning journey. Reading out loud helps students by boosting their memory, actively participate, and increase attention. Reading while listening combines multiple senses together which increases comprehension and efficiency while reading. This increases attention span, focus, reading comprehension and reading fluency. While teaching students these two skills it is equally important to take into account big data and learning analytics. When students’ reading skills are recorded, that data will be able to be collected to help focus on individual needs. Insights based on the data can be used to help create student’s customized learning paths through micro assessments. Learning what makes the students learn can be very beneficial in predicting how students will learn best in the future and changing their learning paths accordingly. Teachers have valuable tools to help make their decisions and they are able to choose a variety of new learning methods to help support their students. Learning analytics has the potential to transform the way we measure the big data and provide students with new information to make the best voices about their education. As the video on learning analytics so perfectly stated, it is all about getting the perfect learning opportunities into the right hands and the right time, all while maximizing motivation and engagement students have for that learning activity. If this occurs there will be a powerful model for personalizing learning for every student.” Thanks, Kat

Hi Aaron, I have made a few attempts at using SiMBi OER website and visually everything looks great and the project is well completed. However, I had a lot of trouble accessing a lot of the website. I'm unsure if it is my computer, or the link between the two but I was unable to read a book for example to a school. I have read through the website and you have compiled a lot of data and summarized it to a high standard. I appreciate the effort you've spent on the site and I will attempt to go through the site once more when I return to work on a different computer. My apologies for the technological difficulties as I am sure many others were able to access the content you have created. Derek

Hey Aaron, the info was awesome. At first I was not sure how reading out loud and reading while listening were connected to Big Data and Learning Analytics, but now it makes perfect sense. I loved having a chance to try out reading out loud and recording something for one of the schools you work with. My only question is when it comes to retention of info, when your recording for someone else to hear, do you think being self-conscious could limit your retention? I think that happened to me. I remembered less because I was so focused on how I sounded. The only thing I would change is the issue with the permissions related to assignment 3. I could not access them and therefore could not complete the assignment. And because it was connected to activity 4 I could not complete that either. Other than that, he site was great!

Hello Aaron. I really enjoyed your take on all of the four areas and how you relate all to each other. The construction of the site was well-thought and the navigation was fluent. Although there were a couple of activities at the end that I have not managed to complete (In Section 3, Option B's forms required some sort of permissions) I found them engaging and educative. I appreciate your initiative and wish you the best. Ebru

Hi Aaron, You really put your heart into this. What was really clever of you was to have us do the silent reading, the ROL and then the RWL. Your site has really turned me into a Production Effect advocate! I would agree with Cassy, that the Google Form Survey questions were not too applicable to my classes in senior physics and mathematics. I did my best to answer truthfully, however. The video that particularly fascinated me was the Big Data, Hans Rosling TedTalk. I loved this guy!!! I may even show this video to my Math 10 students, when we get to our Relations Unit. So many important conversations to be had with this data and data analysis comparisons. I think what also imprinted on me was the Big Data isn't necessarily Big Brother. There are many positive uses of using data, in non-trivial ways. The data analytics being used in education circles truly has immense potential, as well. I appreciated hearing the one speaker emphasize that still, the most important piece of the learning puzzle, is the relationship between student and teacher. Furthermore, perhaps when we stop fearing the data collection process, we will be able to reap more of its benefits. The role of the educator is as important as ever; that role, is merely evolving into a new form. For the record, I am a Google Form junkie... I make at least five Forms a week. I will be in random situations, professionally and personally, that I want Google Form the heck out of. My favorite Form is the one I made for my beginning of semester Interest Inventory. Having all of the students' emails, concerns, parent info, learning needs, etc. in one place is so amazing for my workflow. #iheartspreadsheets

Aaron, I just completed my tour and activity immersion in SiMBi. I applaud your effort -- the site offered both depth and breadth, is well organized, and the navigation is a piece of cake. I learned a tremendous amount about Reading Out Loud, Reading While Listening, Big Data, and Learning Analytics. Regarding the activities, I quite liked the immersive -- read/learn using varied styles, then replay/recall. It was quite an effective means to assess my own strengths in information absorption and synthesis. I also like that you organized forms and pages to provide yourself/company with consumer insights. This was good thinking on your part. I completed the Parent Form -- might suggest adding a not-applicable option to some of the questions. I ended up answering questions, that were truly not applicable but could not advance without making a selection (your data from me will be flawed :) ) Also, as I was moving through the site, I kept asking, I wonder how SiMBi monetizes. Then I got to the page, and understood at a basic level the model. I'd like to know more information about what the particular offerings are for each of the two product options. Bang up job Aaron, and considerable effort, too! Thumbs up to your initiative. (Note to you, a couple of the pages/prompts did not work properly. The selection of a book for the school on the map. I was not able to select a book though the guidelines indicated I should. Also, on Activity 3, all three of the form pages referred to a permission based google doc (at least on my computer).

Hi Aaron, Thank you for your work, this week! Can you help me figure out how to actually read a book to one of the schools? I can't seem to figure out the process. I have clicked multiple times on everything. So far, no dice. Cheers, Dana