Pedagogy First!

Cohort 3 / Semester 2 / Week 1: Introductions

Welcome back cohort three members. I am very excited about the changes that Lisa and Pilar have designed for this semester. I think they will allow us to build on the experience of the first semester by setting up an opportunity to connect our own online teaching with a text that lays out a broad theoretical framework mixed with practical guidance. As Lisa noted in the email she sent out announcing these changes a few weeks ago, "The POT leadership hopes that this semester will provide you with even more pedagogical preparation for online teaching, plus a larger, more holistic view of online teaching as its own practice."

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Here is our mission for week one:

• Read: Ko and Rossen, Chapter 1: Teaching Online: An Overview (also skim Chapter 2: Scouting the Territory)

Points: applying your in-class instructional strategies to online, teacher as facilitator and moderator, technology is second after teaching, reflecting on practice.  

 

Obviously the fun of this kind of blogging is crafting your own approach to responding to the readings we will be doing together. But if you are looking for some guidance, here are a few ideas

•  
  • you might compare what you are reading in the text to your own experience and philosophy
  • you might raise questions or concerns raised about the ideas in the text
  • you might look at a certain online teaching situation (class, learning activity, etc.) and apply the ideas from the text to that experience
  • you might explore some connections between our text and other texts you are reading or have been influenced by

Please do not let those suggestions limit you in any way; I intend them only as starting points.

And, finally, responding to each other is just as important as offering your own ideas in a post. Those responses--the dialogue they generate--is what makes this feel like a community. Please take the time to make this an authentic conversation.

Thanks, in advance, for what I know will be a fun and illuminating experience!

Jim Sullivan
The Blog Guy

Week 14 - Summary

Definitely a good program. I think that it reaches two important goals (sorry, SLOs): to guide the participant throughout the endless ocean that is the Internet and to keep reminding and focusing on the importance of starting from pedagogy and then looking for the tools to make it happen.
Another positive aspect is that even if topics have to be general, because they have to be informative for the entire academic spectrum, each one of us tried to put his own spin on the pedagogical application of a topic, making it valuable to every field. And the ‘pedagogy first’ approach is a big part of what makes it possible to offer the same tools to a huge variety of needs.
I am with Richard on the time issue. I also don’t think that the tasks were too long, apart for maybe, one week. It is a fact that investigating all these tools is time demanding as well as exciting. Many times during the semester I felt a little frustrated because of the little time I could dedicate to the researches and to testing tools, while every week I was looking forward to the new task coming from Jim. Maybe it was because of the intense Fall semester, and the Spring will give me more time. Or maybe I am just bad at time management...
Anyhow, my regret is that with more time I could have contributed more to the POT community, and to do this is my ‘new semester resolution’ for Spring 2011.

Here are my entries from first semester:

Week 13: Course Management System
Week 12: Copyright and Accessibility
Week 11: YouTube and Friends
Week 10: Where did the time go?
Week 9: Google Docs
Week 8: Diigo and Delicious
Week 7: Creating Community
Week 6: Screencast programs. Jing, Voicethread and Slideshare
Week 5: RSS and Newsreaders
Week 4: Finally I get it!
Week 3: Sample online classes and some questions
Week 2: My Pedagogy
Week 1: Ciao!

Week 14: Links and Summary

The program is great!  I had some prior ideas reinforced and learned new things at the same time.  The pedagogy approach, rather than just an all-tools approach, makes a lot of sense.  It's good to know why to use a certain tool rather than adopt it just because it has all the bells and whistles. So this part of the program is definitely appropriately named:  Pedogogy First!

I know it's difficult to accommodate all users of the program, but I think one improvement would be to add library resources to one of the units (obviously I am biased here).  We spend a lot of money and energy to make libary resources, including subscription databases, 24/7 librarian access, and information literacy, accessible to faculty, staff, and students, and emphasizing that would be beneficial to all parties. 

One of the biggest drawbacks for me, and this is NO FAULT of the program, is finding the time throughout the semester to explore the tools and reflect on the pedagogy.  I felt rushed most of the time, so when summer rolls around, I am committed to re-exploring some of the pedagogy and tools. 

Here's the list of links for previous posts:

Week 13:  Insidious Pedagogy

Week 12:  Copyright

Week 11:  YouTube vs Vimeo

Week 10:  WorldCat

Week 9:  Google Docs Crocodoc

Week 8:  Diigolet

Week 7:  Opportunities & Pitfalls

Week 6:  Cool Tools

Week 5:  Database RSS

Week 4:  Blog + Flickr = Blickr

Week 3:  whim-ee-whig

Week 2:  Bears and Jellyfish, Oh My!

Week 1:  2 Cents Worth

Week 13: Insidious Pedagogy

Wow.  Great article, Lisa.  I remembered trying to set up a CMS course the first time, and yes, everything was convoluted and not inutive.  Just trying to get rid of some of the available course tools that I would never have the students use required a spiral pattern of navigation.  If you turned off one feature, then it disabled another feature that you wanted...

Some of the ideas noted in Lisa's article made a lot of sense, such as providing novice users a pedagogy focused approach rather than the bells and whistles of the systems.  I attended a one day orientation on WebCT at another community college, and unfortunately, the entire presentation was focused on the "greatness" of an online program and then came the presentation on how to set up your course (over 85 features were discussed). 

Personally, I would like to see a template-based set up for novice users, with helpful suggestions.  For instance, in setting up the menu, the template can ask the instructor if he/she would like to have a button for grades:

Template:  Would you like to include a button for students to check their grades?  (Most instructors find this helpful because blah, blah....).  If you would like a menu button for this option, please click "YES."

Thank you.  What menu button would you like to include next?  [scrollover buttons would provide a short summary of what the menu buttons would do]

I think there is also the place where good design would allow instructors to add constructivist-based assignments, especially if the template is created in a way that offers suggestions.  How would you like to upload your assignment?  Are there pictures you would like created?  Are there links you would like to include?  Would you like to utilize a wiki? Etc....

Reflecting Over the Past Semester

When I first heard about POT Cohort 3, I thought learning about online teaching would be a way to supplement my on site classes.  Although I was familiar with some on-line resources such as YouTube, I had never blogged or used Flickr to annotate photos.  I had never heard of Moodle.  Every week has been a learning experience for me. I appreciate that I've been encouraged to examine why I teach the way I do, and have had the opportunity to consider the importance of choosing tools that fit my pedagogy, not merely using tools because they are there by default.  This semester I feel as though I've been introduced to options, tools and terms.  I'm more comfortable with using online resources and even though not everything is intuitive to me yet, considering what I knew starting in September, I've come a long way.  

My only prior experience with taking an online class was one of information being passed passively along. There was no collaborating with other students, no interaction with the material, no questions, just information to watch, read, and take a test on.  I learned, but thought there had to be a better way.  (Obviously the class I took online class was not a MiraCosta class.)  I've enjoyed learning from my cohorts, and know that when I do  toward create a hybrid class, it can be active and engaging.  I look forward to next semester!

Week 13 - CMS

Week 12 - Acessability, Legal

Week11 BlipTV, YouTube and more

Week 10 Open Textbooks - Online Resources

Week 9 Collaborative Documents

Week 8 -Social Bookmarking

Week 7 Community Building Tools

Week 6 More Tools

Week 5 - RSS Feed

Week 4 Exploring Flickr

Week 3 Resources and Options

Week 2 Pedagogy Reflection

Week 1

Week 13 - CMS

I started back a December on this assignment by reading Insidious Pedagogy. Prior to joining the POT cohort, I probably would have used the default settings on a CMS, just because I would have been unaware I had other options.  Of course, I know better now!  (Although I have a long way to go!)

via www.freetowrite.com

Semester Summary (Week14/Cohort 3)

I love innovation.  My thesis was about entrepreneurs, I've started a few businesses, and I can't get enough of discussing ways to do things in new, better, and more interesting ways.  This program has allowed me to engage in these types of discussions while reflecting on the way I teach.  So far not only have I been able to (re)consider my online pedagogy, but I have begun a (re)evaluation of my teaching as a whole. 

I love the new tools.  Flickr, RSS, Spruz, Diigo, Croc-o-Doc, and a few others were new to me in the teaching context, and even though I had used some in the past (Google Docs for example), writing about them in this context allowed for deeper understanding of the potential uses in both online and face-to-face settings. 

Intro- Eric Robertson

Preflection, Engagement, Reflection

Online Note Taking Services...Evil? (Week 3-Cohort 3)

Flickr & MiraCosta Mornings

R (yawn) S (yaaawwn) S (yaw....) Feed(zzzz........) (Week 5/Cohort 3)

Cha-Jing! Fun and Productive Tools! (Cohort 3/Week6)

Pedagogy Second! Exploring Spruz (Week 7/Cohort 3)

Here we go with Diigo... (Week 8/Cohort 3)

Croc-o-Doc & Google Docs

The University of Malawi? (week 10/cohort 3)

Youtube and Friends (Cohort 3/Week 11)

Can I use this? (Week12/Cohort 3)

Lisa is Insidiously Awesome (Cohort 3/Week 13)

Semester two summary

I have now been posting here and paricipating in POT for two semesters, but I don't think I'm done yet. I wasn't able to particiapte in many of the Friday workshops over the fall becuase of a time conflict, si I probably still have more to do. This semester I began using diigo bookmarks pages for many of my classes, and made jing lectures for my online classes. The diigo bookmarks I have made an integral part of a few classes, and have seen them being used and playing a part in the student's learning. The jing lectures I don't know how much of a difference they make, considering I post the written versions of the lectures as well, so they don't even need to watch them. Nevertheless, once I got making them down, they actually became kind of fun to make. All together I made 35 seperate lectures.

On to the next stage

My exciting Saturday night

Post three

Another week

More jing

End of a class

New class

diigo and more jing

Starting to think about next semester

Big papers

Another new class

Not all of my classes are ending

Next semester I am using Blackboard for on campus classes for the first time. I guess I'll talk about that later!

Week 14 - CMS

I started back a December on this assignment by reading Insidious Pedagogy. Prior to joining the POT cohort, I probably would have used the default settings on a CMS, just because I would have been unaware I had other options.  Of course, I know better now!  (Although I have a long way to go!)

The Moodle Tool Guide got me thinking more about what I would want to accomplish with a CMS.  As I actually prepare some online units/supplements, I think the guide will be a go to resource to help me consider what to use to achieve my goals.

I was unable to fully access EduTools in December, perhaps because they were transitioning to the new site.  This month I was able to access CMS comparisons, although I didn't find one for Blackboard 9.

Exploring a CMS I am unfamiliar with was an interesting assignment.  In the past my classes have not been on Blackboard.  I contacted Karen and am now set-up on Blackboard.  It's a start.  I feel like I have to go back to the beginning and start with pedagogy and move forward from there....

Lisa is Insidiously Awesome (Cohort 3/Week 13)

I've used Blackboard for about 6 years now.  I don't have any major issues with it, and it has overall been a helpful tool to help students grow and learn the material I teach.  A few years ago, I read the book "Presentation Zen" by Garr Reynolds, and it completely changed my view on the ways I use visual aids in the classroom.  I now start all preparation in analog (blank computer paper and a pen) and create from that point. 

After reading Lisa's article, "Insidious pedagogy: How course management systems impact teaching," I had a similar sort of epiphany.  I now see the default settings of Blackboard similar to the PowerPoint slides that come with a textbook.  Sure it will work.  Sure it takes less time to use it.  But the structure presented is for everyone, not for you. 

As someone who believes that an individual pedagogy is deeply personal and unique, I now realize that my use of Blackboard was pretty darn close to using the slides provided by my publisher.  This makes me sad, but motivated.  After reading about the other possible systems, I am interested to see what they can do.  However, at the end of the day, I should continue to plan in analog.