Reflections

As we begin the fall semester I have a few reflections.

First of all I would like to thank Ralph Newby for recommending me for the Faculty Voices blog. Now that I am in the habit of blogging, I will keep up with other blogs. It has been an enriching experience!

This past summer was a tough one. I had lots of students with lots of issues. Many wanted special exceptions to the rules, while others questioned the rules. Upon reflection, there were the same percentage of students that completed their work on time and without complaint, just like past semesters. I realize summer was not that unusual it just seemed so due to the sheer number of students and the short schedule.

We begin anew for fall; raring to go for the new influx of students. Who will be brilliant? Who will turn in files that I say “Wow”? Who will do the minimum required?

I think the downturn in the economy has benefited society in that people are realizing the importance of a higher education as we continue in this century. Competition with other countries is fierce and we need to be “on top of our game”. Hopefully our students will be able to get meaningful jobs with their new skills. We certainly will do everything we can to help them.

Webinars using Elluminate

CCConline offers us many educational opportunities through their Webinars. I attended one this summer on using the Grades tool in D2L. Some features I didn’t know were available to even ask about. I learned so much more than if I just studied the Wiki. Thank you Amy and everyone else that presents these Webinars.

I have thought about how to include a Webinar in my classes using Elluminate. It requires that the students and I are online at the same time. Most of my students work full-time, so trying to find a good day/evening/time of the week would be difficult. However, if I could get at least a few, perhaps that would be worth the effort. One of the benefits is that it can be archived and viewed later if someone cannot attend.

It requires time to create a presentation, so I need to explore that as well. Has anyone used Elluminate in their classes, and if so, did you get a good response from the students?

New Technologies

I was commenting recently on new ways of teaching, here is link to an article how the military is being trained these days.

Military Training

Like Second Life and video games, what is reality and what is not? SL (Second Life) refers to anything outside of its virtual world as RL (real life).
My 12 year old grandson plays Wii constantly. He says when it is broken that is when he goes outside to play.

Children (and adults) see movies where people are blown up, shot with machine guns, and other violence. How do they distinguish what is real and what is on T.V.?

I guess I am old, but all this scares me just a little. I am all for new technologies, but I plan to pick and choose which ones.

Students of 2014

How will we teach the freshman coming in 2014? This article gives us a clue about what students of 2014 might be like.

Students of 2014

No e-mail? Never a wristwatch? Never used a phone with a cord? What will we need to do in our classes to reach these students in a meaningful way?

I posted a blog recently about using the Second Life Avatar program. Perhaps incorporating this program or using it in part of a class, might be a way to go.
Right now, a pre-medical student can dissect a frog with an online program. That saves a lot of frog killing and is a good way to accomplish that particular task. However, we would want our physician to have worked on a real human, before diagnosing our problem. Someone researching a plant for a wonderful new drug could do a lot of research on the Internet. They also would need hands on experimentation.

Interactive videos are available now and I use them quite a bit in my computer application classes. The students still need the hands on work or they will not be able to use these programs. A question I ask myself is if I should make it so they can work from their IPod, IPad, or other electronic device, rather than a computer. I do not have an answer. In fact, I mostly have questions.

My opinion is that the subject matter should drive what technologies are used. Anyone that wants to chime in, please do.

Best (worst) file excuse

I decided to go back and make a list of the late file excuses I received this past summer. Some were legitimate reasons for late work, but most were not.

Here is an original excuse I would like to share. Class began on June 7th; this e-mail was received on June 28th. No discussions or quizzes had been completed before this date.

“My husband and I just got our textbook last night because our car died and we had to run out a buy a new one and we were not able to purchase our book until last night. We spent all day trying to get completely caught up and my husband got his files submitted to the dropbox, but unfortunately in between the time when I attached the files and hit send, the clock struck 11:59. I was just wondering if there was any way that I can still submit them. Please let me know how I can solve this and I appreciate your time”

I responded that work that was over one week late would not be accepted, per the syllabus. Neither the husband or wife responded back to my e-mail. Notice also the 11:59 p.m. time. If you were a student, would you wait until the clock struck the last minute to upload your work?

This summer session has been very frustrating, however, I learned from these students. My fall classes will have many changes that should make my life easier.

P.C. vs Mac

One of our challenges with teaching computer programs is having students using both a P.C. and a MacIntosh for classes. I do not own a Mac, but have become familiar enough with the platform to address issues that come up. I believe we need to accommodate both platforms. Many industries dealing with graphic design use Macs instead of P.C.s. Just watch a trailer on how Avatar was created and you will see they all use Macs.

Mac users are defensive when it comes to their computers. They think Macs are the best and why would a person use a P.C.? I try to stay out of this discussion as everyone is entitled to their opinion. The books I choose address the difference between these two platforms. I also have notes to show how to use each; even though there are some that never read my notes.

It would be helpful sometimes in answering some questions that arise if I had both types of computers. Fortunately, I have friends with Macs that can help me out sometimes, as well as some of my students. I have no problem asking student’s for an answer. It makes them feel important and why not?

Engaging the online learner

I am continually seeking new ways to engage my online learners. Our challenge is a bit different than f-t-f classes. Our students are sitting in a room, by themselves, working on their class work. My classes are all computer applications, Microsoft and Adobe products, so most all of it is hands on following the steps in a textbook. Here are some of the things I do to help keep their interest.

Whenever I find an online article that relates to my classes, I post it in the discussions. In Excel, articles about budgeting get a lot of attention. In Photoshop, articles about manipulating photos (to misrepresent), get the most attention. Whenever I find a job posted in my local paper for a job related to my classes, I try to remember to scan it, and share with the class.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, making the class personal helps a lot. Working through a textbook hour after hour can be tedious work. Breaking it up with personal stories or photos helps to keep their interest. I keep these personal interest items to a minimum, though, so as not to distract them.

Fortunately for all of us, there are a plethora of free videos/tutorials to show students how to do accomplish a task. What a great feature! Have you tried to make your own video? I have and it was not pretty. Some of my preparation time is spent finding just the right video for a particular feature. YouTube is a great resource, but it also can be distracting. My textbooks show step by step instructions, but nothing beats a good video demonstration. We must keep in mind that learning involves many of our senses. Hearing and seeing videos can be very helpful, especially to students that have a hard time focusing on reading.

Discussions where students have to complete a little bit of research on the Internet helps them to be more engaged in the class. I have had negative comments on this as well, but only from students that want to put in the least amount of effort. Most comments are positive for research projects. They are not writing research papers. The task is usually to find a video or article relating to a particular chapter in their textbook. There isn’t just one good textbook that covers everything we may want the students to know in our classes. A bit of research helps them to learn more about their subject or chosen profession.

What are others doing to add interest to their online classes? I welcome comments.

Discussions

These blogs have been very informative, as I had hoped they would be. One suggestion from Lisa Marie Johnson has been particularly helpful and I will be incorporating it into my fall classes. That is the subject of discussion posts. Some of the students in my classes love discussions, and others think they are a waste of time. Regardless of how they feel, we try to get them involved in these classes as if they are taking a class on campus. No one textbook can cover what they need to learn in a class and discussions are supposed to be a learning tool.

This summer, I had one class with over 25 students. On Saturday, I would have perhaps 10 posts, by Monday, there were 72 posts. Many made at 11 p.m. on Sunday night (the due date). Obviously, not acceptable.

Lisa puts the following in her classes. I believe this will be very helpful to me in my fall classes. Thank you Lisa for sharing.

“Please do not think of the 'end date' for our discussions as the 'due date'. You are expected to be active on two different days each week a discussion is open. And, posting only on the last day will result in point loss regardless of the quality or quantity of your postings. The reason for this guideline is that research shows the more active students are in an online course discussion the more they learn and the more engaged they are with their learning overall.
Also, it's just good manners. Imagine you were taking this course on campus two or three days a week for an hour or so. Then, imagine you made a habit of coming in during the last 5 minutes of class and offering a lot of information and questions to consider. You would not expect much interaction from your instructor peers, would you? In fact, you would look a bit silly.

Well, the same is true online. Waiting until the final hours of a 'class period/discussion' that has been going on for 7-14 days is similar to walking into class at the last minute and expecting a quality level of interaction or learning. It just is not going to happen! The final day of discussion, if anything, like the final minutes of a class period, are about reflection, debriefing, and digesting what has been said and preparing yourself for what is to come, or asking for clarification on things from the class/discussion that are unclear to you. Please keep this in mind when participating this term - we have a course room, but it is yours and my interactions throughout the weeks that will make it a "class".”