Pedagogy First!

Recorded Session Available! "Creating Connections in Online Classes"

Hello, everyone!  I wanted to let you know that if you did not get a chance to view the workshop I did on Friday, but want to check it out, the link is now available for the recorded session.  This is what was posted at the http://mccpot.org/wp/ site.

April 9, 2:30-3:30 pm — (please note new time!)
online session Connections in Online Classes
Session leader Laura Paciorek writes: Since I started teaching online, I have been exploring the idea of how to connect with students in an online environment.  There are six types of connections that I strive to facilitate in my classes.  This workshop will highlight those six types of connections and some strategies that may work in fostering those connections.  A brief literature review about connections in online courses will be shared as a part of this presentation. Elluminate Recording is here and PowerPoint slides are here. Help us out! If you watch this recording, please do the survey!
POT certificate designation OT100: Online Pedagogy

Experimenting with Google Documents (and Diigo is fun!)

I tried out Google documents because it seemed like the easiest way to create a collaborative group study guide.  It was simple!  I wanted students to be able to just click a link and get to a document, instead of having to log into another site.  I find that Google allows that in a lot of ways, which is also why I like the Google Talk Chatback Badge.  Students participated a little bit, but not as much as I hoped.

I have also used the discussion board inside of my course and just had students post their questions and comments about what they were studying for the exam.  This seemed to get more use than the Google document, which was good.

I have also held study sessions through Elluminate live! in which I wish students participated more.  This is making me think that perhaps the issue is that the Google document was used for a study guide.  Maybe studying-related activities are just not that interesting to my students.

It is also possible that they feel they don't have to contribute any more beyond what I tell them in terms of preparing for the exam.  Also, I do think that students may have watched the exam review session recording.  I have not yet figured out how to track that, so it is possible that the Elluminate session was viewed more than I think.  A few students did mention watching the recording.  Maybe they felt that posting in a wiki or discussion board was not necessary after seeing the session.

Here are a few things I would like to try:

1) I think that students would be more likely to use the wiki if they had points attached to it somehow.

2) I would like to use wikis for other purposes besides just study guides.

3) I would like wikis to be inside my course!

What I liked about Google documents:

1) It was simple!

2) I could sort of "lock" the document at some point, download it, and send it out to all of the students in the class.

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Diigo was a lot of fun this week!  I appreciate that a group was set up so that I could explore Diigo more.  I signed up for daily updates for the Diigo group.  I think that is a great feature for groups.  It would be neat if students received daily updates of new links and comments posted in their Diigo group.

Announcement: Workshop about "Connections in Online Courses" (I hope you can attend!)

Dear Fellow Program for Online Teaching Participants:

 

I wanted to invite you all to a workshop I will be holding on Friday, April 9^th.  I hope you will be able to attend.  I know the time of my workshop might be a challenge for some of you, but please consider viewing the recording and sending me your thoughts even if you cannot attend the live workshop.  For those of you interested in exploring Elluminate Live! a bit more, definitely consider attending the live workshop since it will give you a chance to experience Elluminate Live! at a real meeting.  Here are the details:

 

Connections in Online Courses (Online Presentation/Workshop)

Save the date: April 9th (2:30-3:30 p.m.)
Where: Elluminate Live! session at the POT Moodle Site (more details to come)

Since I started teaching online, I have been exploring the idea of how to connect with students in an online environment.  There are six types of connections that I strive to facilitate in my classes.  This workshop will highlight those six types of connections and some strategies that may work in fostering those connections.  A brief look at the literature about connections in online courses will be shared as a part of this presentation.  I hope you can attend!  Details about how to log in will follow.  If you want me to email you the login instructions directly to you when they become available, please let me know at lpaciorek@miracosta.edu.

Week 6: Me gusta Voicethread, WIMBA & Jing.

Hola,

As an online Spanish instructor, I had to familiarize myself with presentation tools. I do enjoy the convenience of jing for responding quickly to student questions with a narrated screencast, but for course content, I prefer presentation tools that allow students to interact with each other and me by adding audio or video comments.

Online language students have to:

• hear the language and the structures and vocabulary they are practicing repeated MUCHO 
• get talking immediately and be given opportunities to practice speaking and listening with each other
• see me and their classmates so that they can feel like they are part of a community of language learners

My two favorites right now are WIMBA and VOICETHREAD primarily because of ease of use for students and for me (creating and grading), and because they allow students to create content, interact with each other, and practice speaking & listening.

To mimic those icebreaker activities many of us do the first week of classes on site, I created this voicethread for my online Spanish 101 class. I created simple to read PP slides, uploaded them to Voicethread, added my video and audio comments, got the embed code and embedded it in my class on Blackboard! 

I know the students enjoyed voicethread because I also had a ning site for my students where many of them posted very positive comments about their experience using it. I had no questions or problems from students and the only instructions they had were the ones you see on the first slide.

Wimba is extremely simple to use, conveniently located inside of Bb and Moodle, and students have no problem using it. It is convenient for grading especially when used for discussions because you can enter a grade that goes directly to your gradebook. Only drawbacks: it does not have video capability, students cannot upload a photo of themselves, and it is not as easy to create slides using "Wimba presentation" as it is on Voicethread. Still, the convenience of having it inside the course management system is attractive especially to beginning online instructors.

Jing - It works!

I was hesitant to use Jing for some time, but I started using it a bit this semester.

I use Jing when I think it's the most effective way to share information with students.  I usually plan out the video in my mind and then just click "record" and go for it.  I type out transcripts after I make the videos.  I play, pause, and repeat, until the whole video is transcribed.  I find that it makes me sound more like I am talking rather than reading if I transcribe after the video is made.

I think the way I am using Jing is working because:

1) I am getting less questions from students about some things.

2) I have seen a change in the students after they view a Jing video.

I realize some of this might just be my class this semester.  They might just have less questions because of who they are.  However, it is a promising sign.  The change in behavior is neat, though, because it is evidence that the Jing videos "work" for my students.

Here is an example of a short (45 second or so) video I made about how to change the subject line in discussion board posts.  After I sent this out to students, many of them started doing this right away!  It has made it a lot easier to follow the discussions and it also personalizes the messages a bit, which is nice.

I had an "aha!" moment when I read Lisa's post.  I also noticed that the sound on my Jing videos was not great.  I tried two different microphones.  One is a high-quality microphone and one is a lower-quality microphone (which actually records me a lot louder on the computer, though).  Both result in a very slight fuzzy sound.  I think the lower quality microphone records me louder because it plugs into the microphone jack rather than the USB port.  Does anyone know about the mechanics of things like microphones?

I have experimented with Slideshare in the past.  I have mostly viewed others' shows to see how the Slideshare program works.  I could see how the commenting function could be helpful.  I don't use Powerpoint, though, for the presentations and lectures in my online classes.  I do those things a little differently.  Therefore, I don't use it myself.  However, I would be interested to hear about how others use Slideshare!

Lisa's Pedagogy: A History ;-)

Sorry for the historical perspective -- occupational hazard! :-)

For many years I have been an excellent lecturer -- I am good at holding attention, being dramatic and unexpected, and tying together ideas. However, I  know that many students do not learn best this way. More importantly for me as a prof, I don't learn much, either, unless I'm exploring a new concept or using a new approach. If I get bored, I switch methods and try something new. That happens a lot. Like, every semester. So now I'd say what I do most effectively is quickly design and implement learning exercises when I don't want to lecture. Most of my effectiveness is tied somehow to course design and materials.

Once I was introducing myself and the class on the very first day, and I asked what questions there might be from the students. One said, "What are you going to do to make us enjoy history?"  My first thought, though I didn't say it, was "that's your job" (put astonished emoticon here). Instead, I told him that I hoped the selection of readings would do that, because I'd taken great care to provide interesting primary sources. He nodded, not really believing me. At the end of the semester, he told me I was right, that the readings had drawn him in, caused him to see patterns.

My on-site teaching style has just changed over time. I used to come to class with notes and outlines, first on overheads and then on the computer. I'd follow the ideas and arguments as I'd laid them out, sharing my expertise. But as I've become more experienced with teaching and with the internet, I no longer enjoy doing things as sequentially. My mind has gone all hyperlinked. I prefer to ask the class when I lecture, "where do you want to start?" and then go where we go. I am no longer insecure about my expertise, and I don't need to prove it with erudite lectures. Every time I open my mouth it's clear I know what I'm talking about as a historian. So now I focus much more on what method I want to use, that day, in class. I lecture when I feel like it (right now I'm trying out Prezi, a new presentation app, so I'm lecturing some).

My online teaching style has followed a similar pattern of change.  I began by typing out and illustrating my lectures, and posting topics for discussion. So I have always had instructivist elements (lecture and recorded audio, plus textbook and source reading assignments), but my discussion forum is now completely constructivist. I post a primary source, and for the first half of the week, students post their own primary sources. Then I come in and summarize the collection, guiding them in using their collection to create historical theses. We do this every week, providing both guidance and practice.  (If you're really interested, I've blogged about this as I went along.) At the same time, developing online discussion caused me to change my on-site homework assignments -- my students now practicing thesis development (albeit with prescribed sources) every week. I would never teach completely online because the on-site and online pedagogies inform each other as they develop.

So I like a balance of instructivist and constructivist elements. My greatest challenge has been the number of students -- 40 in each section. It prevents the seminar environment I would prefer in my on-site class, and the more constructivist and connectivist methods I would like to use online. My online forum discussions are, to me, a triumph of good constructivism despite having too many students -- they have taken advantage of the large number to create better collections. But it took awhile for me to come up with this -- I used to have them create image collections but it bombed because there was no feedback loop; it was unguided.

What I would like to do now, with a smaller class, is try a connectivist approach, having students create their own Personal Learning Environments to research and learn about history.

Images from http://smart-central.com/

Week 2: A method to my madness?

How I describe my teaching method differs depending on my audience. To my colleagues I say my teaching method is eclectic and centered in real communication. I try to create a classroom environment that is interactive and dynamic, where students are encouraged to be creative with the language and broaden their world view. Here's how I get my students to understand that there is a method to my madness and to prepare them to break away from the traditional linear teaching and learning methods with which they have become so comfortable. On the first day of an introductory Spanish class, I ask the students questions like how a surfer gets to be good at surfing, or how a pianist becomes a professional musician. They say that they surf or play piano a lot. I ask them what they want to be able to do after taking a semester of Spanish. They say they want to be able to speak it. I ask what they would have to do in and outside of class in order to learn to speak Spanish? They get the connection and say "speak Spanish a lot" (some with that DUH tone). I don't care. I keep going, cause there's more. I ask them if the surfer can get better surfing by watching surfing movies more than getting out on the waves or if the pianist can get better by listening to piano music but seldom touching a piano. They say no (DUH). I ask them why. They say because it's impossible to get good at it unless they practice in the ocean or on a piano. I ask them if good surfers had ever fallen off their boards or if the professional pianist had ever made a mistake. By now, of course, they GET IT, so I stop with the questions. I tell them that in my class they will converse a lot about the people, activities, things, issues that are relevant to their lives or those of the people in their community; they will make a lot of mistakes, work through them and keep trying; since every conversation will be somewhat different and there is no script, they will be creative; they will compare what is familiar to them to the lives, culture and history of people in Spanish speaking countries. Most students say that they took Spanish before, but don't remember anything. I tell them that they will remember Spanish much better if they interact with it and make mistakes just like the surfer has to interact with the surf board and the waves and fall a lot or as the pianist interacts with the keys and the pedals. What does that mean for them? As they develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, they should seize every opportunity to speak about their lives instead of just listening to others; write about their lives instead of only reading other people's words; participate with their own body language instead of just watching others; find ways to incorporate Spanish into their own lives and make it relevant to them instead of always being the observer. What I do best in an on ground class is also my biggest challenge in an online environment. I enjoy creating culturally relevant and engaging conversation and writing prompts/assignments, but how do I provide students with meaningful opportunities to converse in an online environment? Here's where this question has taken me so far: ELLUMINATE: I started by dividing students up into groups of two, creating a room for each group in Elluminate, posting the prompt and asking them to meet once every two weeks to record a conversation. This worked well as a learning tool for the student who did not have technical difficulties, but there were some who struggled with this tool. Sometimes microphones wouldn't work, we heard horrible echoes, or students just couldn't get in. Our Instructional technology specialist offered several fixes students could try, but after a couple of semesters of headaches, I decided that it shouldn't be this difficult; surely there must be something more user friendly, straight forward and accessible to students. I looked into other options such as Skype, but there was nowhere they could record so that I could access it and grade it. Then, MiraCosta acquired Wimba for use in Bb and Moodle.

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WIMBA: With Wimba, I could now post multimedia conversation prompts and although students would not have simultaneous conversations, they would have great asynchronous conversations without any technical issues. I use the voice board and voice presentation. (I still use Elluminate for office hours and I require that they meet only twice a semester on Elluminate to record with a partner, but they know that if they have any trouble, they can record with me. This seems to work much better.) Screen capture of Voice Presentation prompt.
 

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VOICETHREAD: In my on ground class, I like variety. I like the format of the class to be familiar, but the delivery methods to vary. I added Voicethread to my online class because it offered a more personalized asynchronous conversation environment since a picture of the student accompanies their post. Screen capture of students' first asynchronous conversation on Voicethread.

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NING: My on ground students get to learn from each other and problem solve in groups when they peer edit each other's writing, work together to create a role play, etc. I wanted my online students to have a place to create content for the course, earn from each other's mistakes/successes and collaborate. I set up a ning community where I could post multimedia writing prompts, students could post multimedia blogs, read and comment on each other's blogs. Screen capture of last blog posts on ning.  

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THE FUTURE: Thanks already to the existence of "Pedagogy First", I am looking forward to using TokBox for office hours and encouraging students to use it to meet up and practice speaking (Thanks, Robert!). I'm also going to keep very busy experimenting with some of the ideas mentioned here, but most of all, I will continue to search for an alternative to Elluminate; a place where students can record their conversations and I can access that recording to grade it.

Meeting 'Face to Face' Online: You and Up to 20 Others

I video conference two or three times a week - almost always an informal family conversation where we get to see and talk with each other.  With family spread throughout the U.S., video conferencing is a nice way to stay close.

I recently discovered TokBox, which allows up to 20 people to video conference together.  Wow!  No downloads either, it runs in the browser window using Flash; works well with Windows and Mac.  The person starting the conference call needs to have a TokBox account, which is easy to create and simply requires an actual e-mail account.  I gave an e-mail address that I actually use, for reasons mentioned further down.  Everyone else participating in the conversation simply needs the URL to join (+ webcam), and they are in!  

I'd rate the fun factor as high, video and sound quality as ok, and ease of use as excellent.

In addition to synchronous video conferencing, TokBox can also be used to send and receive video e-mails.  A url is provided that you can put on your webpage - anyone clicking on it is taken to a screen where they can click on the 'record' button to start their video message, and the 'stop' button when done.  These video messages can be up to 10 minutes in length.  If you provide your actual e-mail address (versus an e-mail account you just use for 'sign-up' and junk mail)... then when someone leaves you a video message, you are notified.

Teachers of foreign language, sign language, music, and public speaking could all use this tool for synchronous online video conferencing - and likely others also.  And if you do - please comment on how it works.

I look to use it for a family video get together - going beyond just video conferencing with only one other family - to include three of four.  My most recent use of TokBox was record my son as he read - so that when mom came back home, she could check up on him...  He enjoyed the opportunity, and watch the video with us later - a record now of his reading ability.  

If you get the chance, check it out.  For a brief overview, view the short video overview provided below:

In learning about Tokbox I came across a blog by Nik Peachey.  He covers several web 2.0 apps (including this one).  I highly recommend you check out his blog.

Enjoy!

Robert

Talk, Watch, Do - Online Office Hours

Yesterday evening I explored hosting office hours using Google Wave.  I was up until 12:30AM.  It was way past my bedtime, but I was having too much fun exploring Google Wave. 

It is easy to include apps into a google wave, such as a WhiteBoard and Conference Calling. In addition, Google Wave's natural strengths (e.g., wikki, discussion board, instant messaging; plus abilitity to insert video) make it a power platform for hosting online office hours.

How would students join the online office hour?  First, they would have to have a Google Wave account (free).  The wave could be made public, students could ping the instructor to join, the entire class(es) could be added to the wave using Google groups, or perhaps in the future a url could be given out that allows participation.

What other features would be helpful for online office hours?  Share your comments below.

Learning & Google Wave

Rose enjoys learning math - when I weave it into game-like scenarios (running a restaurant, paying rent, etc.).  Even better is when she experiences using math in her life (e.g., doubling a recipe, determining how much to buy or pay at the store).

How my daughter learns and collaborates will be dramatically different from her father's experience in school.  The very tools she uses will be different.

Google Wave is another one of the new technologies to make the scene, and perhaps she and my college students will be using it in the near future on collaborative projects.  I think of 'Google Wave' as a shared collaborative space that you can invite others to, or make public to the world.

Briefly, Google Wave incorporates elements of a wiki, blog, e-mail, threaded discussion board, file sharing, and instant messaging... plus you can include links, images, videos, gadgets (e.g., 'live' bar graph of vote on a topic) and robots (e.g., 'live' translator). 

Below is my first experience with using Google Wave... to create a learning object that students can interact with, discuss, and even modify.  I also show how online instructors are discussing (within Google Wave) the possible applications of using Google Wave.

Rose has not yet tackled any online collaborative projects with others, but when she does, Google Wave will be another tool at her disposal.  As for college students, this may be a great way to organize files, conversation, and resources when collaborating on a project.  Stay tuned...

If you want to find out more about Google Wave, here are a few resources:
An 8 overview of Google Wave (YouTube)
Google Wave - One Hundred Cool Things(webpage)
The Complete Guide to Google Wave(e-book; scroll down to TOC)

Request a Google Wave account

Enjoy!
Robert