Long time no see…regularly. Yes, my blog languished a good bit during the past semester and while I was away on research in Australia. (More on the latter later. But here’s a pic of me photo-bombing ↓ some roos for now to tide you over.)
I also taught a class, History of the U.S. Present, my second course, in the Spring. I’ll admit I lose focus on blogging while teaching. Potential post topics don’t seem to percolate as easily, and the idea of blogging on what I’m learning about teaching while teaching makes me a little uncomfortable. Perhaps there’s a blog post there somewhere. At any rate I’m back, working on the introduction to my dissertation with the help of #writingpact and weekly writing support meetings with my #TeamPhinisheD teammates. And to begin my return to regular blogging I offer you the below highlights from three sessions I attended at the 2015 Innovation in Pedagogy and Technology Symposium, which was held in May here in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Getting Your Digital Hands Dirty: Creating Interest and Engagement in an Online Course
by Dr. Valerie Jones, College of Journalism and Mass Communications, UNL
This first panel gave me a lot to think about when it comes to utilizing blogs in both online and traditional courses. I’ve used blogs quite successfully in past courses to promote the development and improvement of student writing via iterative, brief (250-word) posts with formal writing standards and citations. Dr. Jones’ guiding principles (below) were especially helpful, and offer additional strategies to increase student engagement with course content and objectives. I especially like her idea of student-produced short videos on an independent reading relevant to the course topics.
Panel notes:
Guiding Principles:
- start w/ their interests
- e.g. Jones teaching course on digital/web analytics so had students start a blog on their interests — then students had data on their blogs the class could use
- make it matter
- e.g. rewards for students who develop a following, highest return visits
- some peer pressure to produce good content & get visits (public nature of blog)
- provide purpose
- e.g. bring in guest speakers (via free-trial version of Zoom video conferencing) to show students can apply knowledge in class to, for example, real-world jobs
- zoom video conferencing has the added advantage of allowing you to build a digital library of recordings of these guest speakers
- e.g. bring in guest speakers (via free-trial version of Zoom video conferencing) to show students can apply knowledge in class to, for example, real-world jobs
- give them a promotion
- e.g. had lots of reading on Blackboard; had students create a presentation/video of “fresh content” of something they’d read that was highly relevant to the class → something they wanted the other students to know
- helps create a sense of responsibility and community in the class
- peer feedback = part of this too^
- e.g. on peer feedback: require 2 peer reviews throughout the semester of other students’ blog + MUST cite an article in support of their critique)
- closing thoughts: find the insight, be brave, have fun
Technology Tools as Levers for Learning
by Faye Haggar, Technology Training Analyst, UNMC
This panel was the last one I attended at the symposium, but it really got my creative juices going. Ms. Haggar not only introduced a wide variety of digital tools with pedagogical potential; she also offered examples of ways each tool can be used to support established principles of good teaching practice. Many of the tools listed (in my notes below) were new to me, while some were tools or platforms I was familiar with but unaware of certain features. I will definitely be experimenting with a few of these tools in future courses.
Panel notes:
- #1: good practice encourages contacts between students and faculty
- students want to feel a connection → scores go up when this happens
- try Blackboard collaborate → virtual office hours
- Remind 101 → send updates, reminders, other important information
- used a lot in K-12
- does NOT require you to give out your personal information (phone number) & is one-way communication
- goes straight to their device
- Screencastomatic → easy to use for an introductory video @ start of semester, set & articulate your expectations
- up to 15 minutes
- gives mp4
- beta version may require download
- #2: good practice develops reciprocity
- document collaboration & sharing: Google docs, Office 365
- Popplet → collaborative brainstorming (concept mapping)
- can add links, files, images, videos, audio
- updated in real time
- FB class groups – “cringe” + “it’s where our students are”
- not accessing any of their personal information this way (not friend-ing one another)
- #3: good practice uses active learning techniques
- TodaysMeet → “back channeling”
- works much like Twitter but is PRIVATE
- log in with a url
- students can ask questions and/or leave a comment
- can return to after class (both you AND the students can)
- audience response: Socrative
- similar to a clicker device
- this^ = free and open source (currently, as are most all of the tools being discussed)
- allows for multiple choice and short answer questions
- students given a class poll to go to and answer Q’s
- can do it in real time (so instructor can use during lecture)
- can also have student-run poll to take at any time
- Excel-format spreadsheet offered → students can be anonymous or require names (e.g. anonymous if want to show results in class to illustrate where everyone is)
- can be set up to be taken just once or multiple times
- Google forms → exit tickets
- can use to ask students questions at the very end of lecture (or provide most important thing they learned today)
- students will receive a URL (you’ll need to shorten this for them)
- *good to use to have students pick out important themes for the day (check how well picking these things out)
- delivered to the instructor in the form of a spreadsheet → students don’t see this
- you create the fields SO you can make it anonymous if you want
- TodaysMeet → “back channeling”
- #4: good practice gives prompt feedback
- consider making students use the following tools before submitting a paper (w/o checking the first submission)
- Soundcloud → record a podcast
- idea for audio feedback
- free
- sound clip can be private → can e-mail link to students or attach to an assignment on Blackboard
- not sure what the limit is on this…
- Adobe PDF → you can leave an audio message
- on Adobe Pro ONLY
- although students can listen in Adobe Reader
- 1 minute-long limit
- can click anywhere on the paper to add a 1-minute chunk message
- on Adobe Pro ONLY
- Kaizena → works with Google Docs
- recording audio
- requires sign-up but is free
- right click in Google Docs & say “open with Kaizena”
- time limit is around 5-minute chunks → again, anywhere in the text
- you can also type comments
- students DO need to download Kaizena; need to tell them to do this (no e-mail sent)
- works with any file in Google Drive
- #5: good practice emphasizes time on task
- TedEd → interactive presentation
- can also create interactive quizzes
- works with videos on YouTube
- then insert questions into
- give students questions to ponder & discuss
- students can provide questions and/or feedback
- can provide additional resources for students to look at
- eduCanon → interactive videos
- can use any mp4
- load video, choose places to pause video and insert question to check for understanding, can tell it to “self-score” so students instantly know how they did
- no limit to questions
- get spreadsheet @ end w/ student name, score, what answers they offered
- students cannot download the video (can always screen-capture though)
- you can leave feedback for the students if they get a wrong answer (a prompt will come up WHEN they answer)
- Evernote → shared notes
- can share notebooks
- different students assigned to take notes on different days → then can grade how students are taking notes
- can leave feedback
- TedEd → interactive presentation
- #6: good practice communicates high expectations
- Rubrics → Blackboard
- (can also just google “rubrics” for some free platforms that students can download and print)
- Google docs → group work and revision history
- e.g. when group work is done, instructor can see via the revision history who did what revisions
- thinglink → consider using to build an interactive syllabus
- takes some time to build
- build an infographic (Piktochart or Google “make my own infographic”) THEN, via thinglink, you add pop-outs that open when students click on (or hover over, scroll to ?) content (e.g. hyperlinks)
- #7: good practice respects diversity and the different ways students learn
- Random Name Picker → uses these for calling on students at random
- so that “everyone gets a chance to respond”
- Post It Plus → Digital Post-it notes
- gives you a jpeg
- app will “clean up” the notes
- can group things together differently (could have the students do this in groups) → costs an extra 99 cents right now
- has text recognition now
- paper.li → curate material
- students collect & build their own content
- e.g. have students search topics (she does this in groups first) & find content (she assigns content for them to search through)
- supplement to a class topic/theme
- Random Name Picker → uses these for calling on students at random
Michelle Tiedje 