Wrapping up the weekend

WOW another weekend in which I feel inspired and overwhelmed. We have learned so many new tools that I feel would improve my teaching and online classes. I definitely want to use the audio recording that we have used this weekend to record introductions for the beginning of the class, instructions for assignments, as well as unit overviews. Again though it goes back to my initial problem of how and when to get this all done. I hope to be able to incorporate a few of these into my current classes but also more extensively when I start to re-evaluate my classes for spring. Jing, especially the video would be helpful with demonstrating computer skills, and perhaps the PowerPoint audio for brief lecture highlights.

WHEW I am tired but inspired.

John

Sample Audio

Today we learned about using Audacity to record files, tonight I will rewrite this in my new standard blog format but for now this is why we have this audio file.

WIKI's

THE FIND: The wonderful world of Wiki's.  We covered to different Wiki sites last night, of which I joined both:
http://www.pbworks.com/
http://www.wikispaces.com/

MY IMPRESSIONS and THOUGHTS
When Robin mentioned we would be looking at Wiki's last night, I thought I had at least a basic understanding of what a Wiki was, from my years of 'hating on' Wikipedia as a professor.  Which has changed since we started this class, but I will comment on that in second.   But after looking at the functionality and user-friendliness of the sites, my creative juices started to flow. 

Ok so why have I historically been a Wiki hater, because that is what I was taught, simply.  In my masters program, that was online and thus most of our research was via online sources, as there was not a brick and morter library to go to.  Which brings up a topic for a future posts, encouraging and training students to use online sources, and perhaps another on how to recognize a crediable online source.  But I digress,  simply I was taught that wikipedia was not a reliable source due to the lack of control and checking on the content.  I do still believe that to a point, but my thought since starting this class has changed.  I know feel why not use wikipedia to get some basic knowledge on a topic.  If I were teaching a class on Computer NEtworking and I had students that did not have the basic terminology down and were reading the text but not comprehending as evidenced from their work, why not suggest looking at this information on Wikipedia.  I still am not saying use Wikipedia as a scholarly source but more as a way to get some cursory ideas about a topic.

So I definitely think that Wiki's have a use in education and I plan to implement them when I start to make improvements to my online courses.

THE APPLICATION AND USESOne application is as a resource landing site, for my semester project I want to create a student resource center website.  My thought was to have a resource wiki linked to this site.  Where I or class members could add sites for reference on certain topics. 

However, one that I am more excited about is using a Wiki for a group project.  Leaning toward the idea above but with a different focus.  Have a group publish a wiki on a course topic.  They can be as creative as they want.  I currently have some of my classes do a PowerPoint along these same lines, however from our brief exploration last evening, it seems a Wiki-space would allow more creative freedom.

So on to new topics in today's class.  Thanks for reading and I do hope you will leave a comment, perhaps you have additional ideas how a Wiki could be used for online classes.  If you have ideas leave them for me and I will share them in a future posting or email me at gvcjtl@gmail.com

Regards,

John

New Blog Format

As most of you know I am a project manager as one of my careers (1/3).  Thus it stands to reason that I am one for order, details, and standardization.  Thus going forward with this blog I am going to use a standard format that assists me in making a meaningful contribution, as well as, making it easier for the reader to review.

The headings will be:
THE FIND
THE APPLICATION AND USES
MY IMPRESSIONS and THOUGHTS

I will be creating a content blog shortly but wanted to expllain and in turn solidify in my mind the how and why behind this.

John

Blogging about a blog

I was looking for new feeds about online teaching today and accidently came across a blogspot blog that has some very useful information for me as a online professor.  One of the necessary evils of an online class is some way to measure participation of the students, in an asychronous class this is usually accomplished by disucsion boards.  Thr normal drill is that I post the initial question, then the student must make a main reply and then respond to at least a couple of other student's posts.  Most time the main post for many students at least address the question to some extent.  The problem is that the replies are usually of little or NO value to teh discussion or the student.  The intend is to emulate a class discussion where students are conversing on a topic back and forth as in a live classroom. 

The blog I found today offered some suggestions on increase that accountability and encouraging participation in discussions.  http://technologybites.blogspot.com/2009/05/tips-for-online-discussions.html.  One specific idea that I would likle to try is having as part of the initial post a student ask a follow up question and then require that they answer the follow up question of someone else.  This stears us away from the I agree type of posts.  I plan on trying that in my online classes.

John

Growing as an online instructor

One of the requirements for my teaching duties at Minnesota College of Business is to go through at least one Professional Development course per quarter.  They have us use MaxKnowledge for these courses.  http://www.maxknowledge.com/ED101.php.  The courses they have available are varied and I have completed 3 so far:
ED101 Effective Teaching Strategies

ED102 Student Retention Methods
ED103 Student Learning & Assessment
ED104 Class Management Strategies
ED105 Instructional Planning for Student Success
ED106 Enhancing Student Learning
ED107 Creating an Accelerated Learning Environment
ED108 Learning Theory and Practice
ED110 Time & Stress Management for Instructors

At first I avoided taking these as they were just something more to do with my already limited time available.  Now before Fall term started I had some down time and strted looking at ED 101 and really found some great information.  ED 101 gives some concrete theory behind online teaching and how to do it effectively.  They sparked my interest and from the information I found there I have purchased some reading materials about improving my strategies.

John