The FLC

Last Week's Share was FANTASTIC!

2009-12-15T12:05:00.002-07:00

If you did not have a chance to attend and participate in our Share Your Stuff session last week, you can access the recording here.

Share Your Stuff!

Share Your Stuff- rescheduled for 12/11

2009-12-05T08:26:00.003-07:00

The Share Session that was to happen 12/4 was rescheduled for 12/11. Please, join us! (See blog post below for details... and now you've got time... if you want to contribute, just email Jenna .) And either way, plan to join us and talk about great things happening in online classes this semester!

Share your stuff! Session 12/4 We want YOU to be part of it

2009-11-24T21:13:00.006-07:00

Got something to share? We would LOVE to have your work a part of this session! How, you wonder? Where will you find the time to get this together? Think about what you have done this semester... Have you tried something new? What is working really well for you? For students? Coming up with what you will choose to share... That is the hard part... The rest- we are making it easy...

We will be using a 1-2-3 structure to share: you need ONE image, you have TWO minutes to speak to your work, ending with a comment or question to generate THREE minutes of discussion in the group. (now you know us… this will not be quite PechaKucha style- we won’t cut you off or the discussion for that matter- but our goal is to generate 10-15 ideas about great things to do in online classes- with only an hour to do it… so the goal times will help us get there)

Intrigued? Inspired? Well, we need YOU!

To play- Email Jenna an image- this can be a screenshot or a compilation of screenshots, but it doesn’t have to be. Your goal is to tell the story of what you do and generate conversation around the key idea. Feel free to be creative! Then, plan your two minutes… we will compile a slideshow of all the images and when yours comes up it is your turn to speak… and yes- we mean speak using your camera/microphone… don’t have a microphone set up yet? Use this as an excuse to figure that out- Jenna, Brian and Joni are happy to help. Or… if figuring that out is just not going to happen for you between now and the 4th, send a script to Jenna and she will be happy to read your blurb aloud for the group to respond to you in the chat.

Ideas? Questions? Just want to talk through which thing you will choose? Chat with us! We want as many voices and as many examples of online teaching in action as possible… and we are here to help you to participate, so please, let us know what you need.

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

~Jenna, Brian and Joni

Using Powerpoint in Online Courses

2009-11-23T21:04:00.000-07:00

Recording of FLC 11/20
https://connect.cuonline.edu/p37798335/

Copy of PPT
http://www.slideshare.net/plowenthal/using-powerpoint-differently-when-teaching-online

PowerPoint Resources Patrick has bookmarked:
http://delicious.com/prlowenthal/powerpoint

PowerPoint Tools Document (help us keep creating/editing this)
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhmhc6fg_3998r3strcn <http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhmhc6fg_3998r3strcn>

Links shared in the Chat Pod
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5dbUCu2Ug
Joni Dunlap: (11:17) http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/the_lessig_meth.html
Joni Dunlap: (11:18) http://www.lessig.org/content/av/
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:29) http://tinyurl.com/FLCpowerpoint
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:49) http://screencast.com/t/NmVhYmE0
Joni Dunlap: (11:56) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF37M1md7uA
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:57) http://delicious.com/prlowenthal/powerpoint
Joni Dunlap: (11:57) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jg9YTfr9lg
Joni Dunlap: (11:57) http://voicethread.com/#q.b739766.i3913861
Joni Dunlap: (11:57) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fokmbnWmp50
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:58) http://learn.westwood.edu/bluebook2/
Joni Dunlap: (11:58) http://gregorylea.evitae.org/project-gallery/presprowess
Joni Dunlap: (11:58) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj28ASmoJNg
Joni Dunlap: (11:58) http://www.screencast.com/users/pro2will/folders/Default/media/8ddf43e7-e6fe-463b-8bd8-583057dca3f4
Patrick Lowenthal: (11:59) http://learn.westwood.edu/gamestimeline/
Patrick Lowenthal: (12:00) http://learn.westwood.edu/art100week6

Using Ning with students and colleagues -- a FLC session with Laura Summers

2009-11-07T13:42:00.007-07:00

During our Friday, November 13th, FLC session, Professor Laura Summers will share how she has used Ning, a social/professional networking tool similar to Facebook, to extend the professional community’s abilities to share need-to-know information seamlessly, foster collaborative discussions, offer advice and guidelines, increase networking among like-minded colleagues, and provide a knowledge bank of materials & technology-integrated artifacts among members for increased communication and professional development. Laura will describe how she has been using Ning successfully in three different professional learning groups for the past two years. Please join us for an informative session that is sure to get you excited about using a tool like Ning to support your work with colleagues and students.

Also, Laura contributed a chapter on her use of Ning to the 2009 CU Online Handbook -- check it out!

And now for something completely different

2009-10-14T14:12:00.000-06:00

If you are a fan of Monty Python, then this is a familiar phrase, and you know that when it is uttered it means that something truly different is about to happen – so hold on!

Here we are in the midterm slump, and I’m waiting for John Cleese to pop into my online course and utter that magical phrase. And, I’m pretty sure the students feel the same way. All courses, whether online or on-campus, have ebbs and flows…points of high energy, activity, and engagement, followed by periods of apathy and an overwhelming desire to hide or at least nap. What can we do to reenergize our courses, and jolt ourselves out of the midterm slump?

This Friday, join Jenna, Brian, and Joni as we share ideas for shaking things up at midterm.

Google Docs

2009-10-07T14:31:00.003-06:00

The emergence of Web 2.0 applications have provided faculty, staff, and students with a host of new tools and applications to use in their day-to-day job and specifically in the classroom. Google Docs is a very flexible, relatively new, Web 2.0 office suite that enables users to create documents, spread sheets, and presentations at ease and then share, collaborate, and publish these materials with a click of a button. Google Docs also comes with a form tool that enables people to create web forms. Google Forms are a fast and easy way to collect data from students (e.g., weekly anonymous course reflections on how the course is going), collect and publish resources (e.g., webliography) that can be accessible after a course is over (and students no longer have access to the LMS), as well as to collect basic (non-sensitive) research data. But perhaps most importantly, Google Docs is free. Come join us as we explore Google Docs on October 9th.

Integrating Video

2009-09-28T11:55:00.001-06:00

Trying something new to present content online...

2009-09-23T21:31:00.007-06:00

A while back Joni suggested that I check out Xtranormal, a free online animation tool that you can use to turn text into an animated video. Today, I tried it out by making a brief introduction to the online conversations my hybrid students will be having about Phonology and Morphology. I copied and pasted (and yes, edited a wee bit) introductory text from our chapter into this tool, then I played around with a few settings, inserted a bit of direction and within a half an hour (honest- it took less than a half an hour!) Here's what I got:

Curious? check out more examples on the xtranormal website .

Then, on Friday, let's chat LIVE about presenting content in online classes. Bring ideas you have, things you have tried and/or challenges you are facing when presenting content in an online class and let's explore ideas together.

Orientation and Getting-to-Know-You Activities

2009-09-14T17:09:00.004-06:00

The first week of class… Whether on-campus or online, we always plan a few orientation and getting-to-know-you activities in an attempt to get our courses off on the right foot. I actually really enjoy these activities, but I always look for new ways to accomplish my objectives. One thing I’ve learned is that, especially in online courses, orientation and getting-to-know-you activities cannot – and should not – just be addressed during the first week of a class. To really support students and help build a productive learning community, these types of activities need to occur throughout the semester. Below are a few of the activities I have used in my online course so far this fall.

Orientation –
In an on-campus course, it can be deadly boring to spend the first class meeting reading through the syllabus. However, there is important information in the syllabus that we want students to know and keep track of. In online courses, it can also be boring…and, therefore, students sometimes don’t go through all of the course materials as precisely as is need to be successful in the course. So, using the quiz feature in eCollege, I created a course and syllabus scavenger hunt that students had to submit by the end of the first week. To complete the 12-question scavenger hunt, students had to read the syllabus, locate materials in the course shell, and watch the orientation videos. The results of the scavenger hunt reassured me that students were locating and tracking important course information, and alerted me to any misconceptions or confusions that individual students had about the materials. Example questions:

In your own words, what are the learning objectives for this course? What is the reason for listing the ILT competencies with the learning objectives?
Why is "creative" part of the course title?
There are four projects for the course: Presentation Makeover Magic, Job Aid Makeover Spectacular, Presentation Prowess, and Design Lessons Learned. Which project are you most looking forward to working on? Why?
Why are the weekly agendas for each week's learning activities hidden at the start of the semester?

Getting-to-Know-You –
I don’t think it is very realistic to get to know people – especially in an online course – with one share-your-bio activity during the first week of class. Building relationships and community requires multiple opportunities to share and connect. So, every week or two, I reengage students in getting-to-know-you activities. Here are two activities I have used at the start of my online course this semester.

Superhero powers: For this activity, students responded to the following prompt:

What are your superhero powers? What is your superhero moniker? And, how do your superhero powers help you in life?

Using VoiceThread, students share a photo and record their response (see below). Their creative responses are so fun…and the results are that we really learn about the assets that each person sees as her or his strengths. It is a very positive approach to a typical share-your-bio activity that also results in learning more about each person’s playful side and creative spirit.

A 5-minute conversation: During the first few weeks of my online course, I invited students to participate in a 5-minute phone conversation with me. I did this so that the students and I might feel more connected and less distant from each other, and so we could hear each other laugh. About half of the students have taken me up on it so far, and my plan is to keep inviting students at different points throughout the course to make sure all who do want to talk have a chance to.

What do you do to help orient students to your online course? What do you do to help students connect with each other and get to know each other?

Chronicle article: 10 High Fliers on Twitter

2009-04-07T11:20:00.004-06:00

This article was in The Chronicle of Higher Education April 10th issue (thanks to Linda Tietjen and Gayle Bradbeer for the heads up!) How timely considering our discussion last week and again this week on Social Media and Higher Education.

Jeremy Young writes,

Twitter is quickly becoming a global faculty lounge. Sure, it's easy to waste a lot of time on the Internet-based microblogging service reading mundane details about people's days. But you can also pick up some great higher-education gossip, track down colleagues to collaborate with, or get advice on how to improve your teaching or research....

The system [Twitter] will not transmit anything longer [than 140 characters]— forcing even the most long-winded blowhards to boil each point down to its essence. That brevity horrifies some in academe, who see Twitter as further evidence of shrinking attention spans and an erosion of critical and sustained thought. But like it or not, hordes of professors and college administrators have signed up for the service in recent months, and some are downright addicted...

To read more you can find this article, "10 High Fliers on Twitter"
online at this address:

http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=BS8HxJvZKZFXM9bjnsrB6PvtqrTdXXFp

This article will be available to non-subscribers of The
Chronicle for up to five days after it is e-mailed.

The article is always available to Chronicle subscribers at this
address:

http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i31/31a01001.htm

Then, join us Thursday April 9th to talk about what this might mean for all of us!

Social Media In Edu

2009-04-01T15:12:00.000-06:00

Ever wonder where social media might fit into education? Have you thought about Facebook or Twitter and considered: would I use either of these with my students? Is there a place for these applications in my own professional development? Joni, Jenna and Brian use these applications in different ways and for different reasons and will speak to what we think, what we do, and open the conversation up to what you think and what you want to know. Join us Tomorrow April 2, 2009 at 11am mountain time as discuss these ideas.

You can join the conversation tomorrow by going to http://connect.cuonline.edu/flc/ any time during the hour, and choosing "Enter as Guest". (You can also find this link in the top right corner of this page).

Please feel free to pass this on to others who you think might be interested, the conversation is open to all. And remember, if you can't make it for the whole hour, feel free to stop by for as much as you can.

Hope to see you there!

Adobe Connect 3/12/09

2009-03-12T08:15:00.001-06:00

Eat, Play, Blog- the FLC edition

2009-01-20T20:44:00.002-07:00

This week Joni Dunlap has agreed to take the lead and speak with us about using blogs for educational purposes. She has been thinking, teaching and learning about all kinds of Web 2.0 tools in education, so we are excited to have her share her perspective and participate in the conversation. As she states in her blog post on this very topic, there are many purposes and ways to use blogs in education:

to be heard, have a voice on issues of my choosing (e.g. my thoughts on teaching), and disseminate ideas.
To engage with the subject area as a lifelong learner.
To connect with others who have similar interests, and build a network of colleagues and collaborators.
To engage in Web 2.0 technologies in a relevant and meaningful way that supports my practice (in other words, my blog has become my base camp/homestead on the Web.
To encourage students to articulate their ideas and perspectives, make their thinking visible and be brave and bold about their contributions to the greater discourse.

Join us Thursday to talk about these ideas and explore- where blogs fit in education- our own and that of our students.

FLC: Special Winter Webcamp Edition!

2009-01-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

It’s Winter Webcamp (online course development workshop) The weeklong session gives attendees the opportunity to to learn new skills, explore advanced topics and techniques and get the support they need to succeed in the online classroom. The entire workshop is being webcast using the same system (Adobe Connect) we use for our Weekly Faculty Conversations. More details including a schedule can be found at: http://www.cudenver.edu/Academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/wwc/Pages/default.aspx

Both myself and Jenna will be in attendance at Webcamp this week and we have set up the Session “10 Tech Tools to Watch” to be scheduled close to when we usually run the FLC. This session falls in line with many of the discussions we have had in the past weeks so please join us as the conversation will prove to be a great one.

*** Please note: The url for the conversation will be slightly different. You can join the conversation by going to http://connect.cuonline.edu/wwc09/ any time during the hour, and choosing "Enter as Guest". (You can also find this link on our blog in the top right corner http://theflc.blogspot.com/ ).

Please feel free to pass this email on to other faculty who you think might be interested, the conversation is open to all. And remember, if you can't make it for the whole 90 minutes, feel free to stop by for as much as you can. Hope to see you there!

The Ultimate Quick Guide to your Netbook

2009-01-07T09:49:00.002-07:00

Since I received my beloved netbook in November, I have been struggling to find an concise collection of information and resources about optimizing the netbook experience. So over the holiday break I had some time to and decided to write my own little guide. You can read it here:

http://www.131j.com/wp/2008/12/29/everything-you-need-to-get-started-with-your-new-netbook/

Holiday Gadget Guide

2008-12-16T10:58:00.003-07:00

With the holidays right around the corner, many of us are dreaming of techie gifts to give and get. Looking for last minute ideas? Anna and I came up with a great Holiday Gadget Guide: Top 5 Hardware and Software must haves for Life in Online Edu 2009. Listen to the podcast here:

http://www.techheds.com/2008/12/10/th-2008-12-08-37-holiday-gadget-guide-top-5-hardware-and-software-must-haves-for-life-in-online-edu-2009/

Then- let's chat!

Join the live virtual conversation this Thursday Dec, 18th by going to http://connect.cuonline.edu/flc/ any time during the hour, and choosing "Enter as Guest". (You can also find this link in the top right corner of http://theflc.blogspot.com/ ).

Please feel free to pass this on to others who you think might be interested, the conversation is open to all. And remember, if you can't make it for the whole hour, feel free to stop by for as much as you can.

Hope to see you there!

Webcasting!

2008-12-10T15:08:00.005-07:00

I heard a little rumor that there was some interest in what I (Brian) was doing last week. Apparently there was even a suggestion to make it a topic of discussion this week. So… why don’t we. Live “webcasting” is yet another application that has been gaining a ton of momentum in the last 2 years. There are many sites out there such as Justin TV and Ustream that are making webcasting quite accessible. In fact our live conversations we hold ever week are essentially webcasts.

Join us as we talk about webcasting, what it is, how it works and what sort of implications it has in higher ed. I’ll plan to demo one of the applications as well so it should be a fun and lively conversation. I hope to see you all there. Join the conversation This Thursday 12/11/2008 from 11am MST - 12noon MST by going to http://connect.cuonline.edu/flc/ any time during the hour, and choosing "Enter as Guest". (You can also find this link in the top right corner of http://theflc.blogspot.com/ ).

Tech tools to explore Part 2

2008-12-09T15:33:00.003-07:00

And then if you want to try out something new-

Remember Webcamp is coming… if you have been wanting to try something out over the break is a great time… because then you can address questions at webcamp.

Thinking about podcasting? Try out www.audacity.com or maybe www.odiogo.com - it looks promising.

Try out using Connect/Breeze yourself- try to upload a PPT and record by yourself in a room, or make a brief welcome or 'here's what we are going to do this week' intro for one of your classes. If you want to see an example of an Adobe Connect module check out-http://connect.ucdenver.edu/outcomes .

Check out Google documents and/or www.VoiceThread.com to explore ideas to get out of a threaded discussion rut and find new ways for students to bring together thoughts and collaborate asynchronously.

Try screencasting: www.Jing.com is a free, downloadable application that is very easy to use and a really easy way to add something different to a course. Once you have downloaded it and turned it on you just bring up a webpage and record an explanation/walk-through or add some commentary on what you see. You can then embed this into a page in your course.

And, as many of us need to at this time of year, if you are ready to just hide from the world:

Just do it! Turn off your computer, your phone, your ipod, your camera. Read a book… Play your stereo… Go to the movies… Ski! Climb! Sled! Wrestle your dog (or your children) in the snow! Just go away! This (and we) will all be back here when you return. :D

Tech tools to explore Part 1

2008-12-09T14:20:00.012-07:00

After a series of energetic and engaging conversations about different tech tools to explore when we have time over a break, we have compiled a comprehensive (if not complete) list of great resources to explore when you have some time. So in the interest of openness…

If you want to get more organized… check these sites:

Calendars: Google Calendar (it can sync to just about anything), and you can get it, as well as the Outlook calendar on most phones.

Scheduling- got student meetings/ conferences to organize? Check out doodle.com it is designed for such things.

Email- think about what you can offload-- to a Virtual Office? Elsewhere?

And Filters! Many email programs have ways to auto file your emails so you can collect and address similar emails at once.

Google docs… where can you get away from sending versions around and share a common document.

Other organizing tools to explore Evernote and RememberTheMilk. These are two free online tools you can use to keep track of and alert you to your to do list.

If you collect a lot of bookmarks and webpages check out social bookmarking: Delicious and Diigo host different communities and have

Zotero, Bibme, and CiteULike are also great resources well worth checking out.

Also, blogging...a blog can be a great way to organize, archive, and document your stuff.

If you want to read, take in new info, learn check out:

One thing you may want to do is figure out your way thru a blog... how is it structured? what is a blogroll? what is rss? Yes, how to subscribe and track your subscriptions?

Tools such as http://technorati.com and http://blogsearch.google.com/ can be useful in determining what to focus on. Pick a specific focus, something relevant to your own interests and collect some blogs.

Explore the way you might want to store them. Google Reader and iGoogle are two different ways you can store and access rss feeds. Check them out and see what appeals to you. Then when you click to store an rss feed you will often open a menu of choices of possible readers/aggregators. Explore and see what might be a good layout and easy way for you to access this information.

Edu blogs: most professional organizations and publications have blogs now; several also have twitter accounts so you can follow both macro and micro versions of their thoughts!

AskDaveTaylor- DaveTaylor on twitter- for just about any tech/how to you can think of.
Garr Reynolds- Presentation Zen. Great book. Great blog. Great person to follow on Twitter

Nancy Duarte- Slideology. Great book.

YouTube- Just spending time browsing around, searching and viewing some videos. Michael Wesch has some great ones, as do many others. And the Discovery Education Network has it's own channel: http://www.youtube.com/discoveryeducation. There are also other aggregate sites that give you access to video and images. Great ones we have found: Teachertube.com ; flickr.com; VoiceThread; Vimeo.com; slideshare.com; and slideboom.com.

Twitter- not sure where to get started? http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/Education+Pack. This is a wiki that was created to pull together great recommendations of people to follow. This is the education one… but there are twitterpacks for all different interests so browse around.

Listen to the TechHeds podcast: http://www.techheds.com/ and hear what Brian, Anna and Patrick are exploring and recommending in the tech world.

Check out resources for free, usable content you can embed right into your classes: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm and www.creativecommons.org are a great place to start.

Winter Break approaches!

2008-12-02T11:06:00.002-07:00

As I am finishing up classes and anticipating the approach of Winter Break, my thoughts are turning to relaxing, reading up and rethinking some of my online teaching to be ready for next semester. Brian, Joni Dunlap and I have been talking about the different ways people use break time- and have come up with a few ideas. Some people 1) get more organized, 2) read, take in, learn... 3) try out something new... or 4) simply go off and hide from the world.

Come to the FLC this Thursday and let's explore some ways that technology can support us as we pursue any of the above options!

Introducing New Technology to Your Students

2008-11-19T10:06:00.003-07:00

Introducing new Technology to your students certainly has its challenges. “While with any new technology there is a period of nervousness for teachers (more than students) in terms of training, course preparation, and implementation, if the nervous state of use quickly becomes habit, then the use of technology can become rote and meaningless for the student.” http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/69331_1/ This great article by Ruth Renyard will be the basis for the discussion in This weeks Virtual Discussion.

Navigating the information r/evolultion

2008-10-27T08:45:00.006-06:00

We are in the midst of an information revolution: what, where and how information is stored, cataloged and retrieved has changed drastically in the past decade with advances in technology. Our own library here at Auraria has embraced these ways and is continuing to add tools to help faculty and students alike access information and become better at searching through all that is available to find what we need. This week Nina McHale, Assistant Professor/Web Librarian, will join us to discuss ways to find the information we want and need.

Overwhelmed by the possibilities? You aren't the only one! Come to the FLC virtual meet-up Thursday 11am -12pm (MST) and let's explore how we can access this r/evolution for teaching and learning.

PowerPoint - the good, the bad, and the hope...

2008-10-21T14:07:00.004-06:00

PowerPoint is the defacto standard for presentations in business and education. Each day over 3 million PPT talks are delivered worldwide. Unfortunately the vast majority of these presentations follow a mundane and ineffective formula of lists of bulleted text and/or overly complex charts and graphs.

Are we eternally doomed to boredom, by colleagues, marketers and teachers reading their bullet lists to us?

There is hope, but rethinking PowerPoint and how to use it, requires undoing of years of indoctrination that without words; lots of words, your presentation will lack substance or validity. In reality, you can create very engaging presentations that are enjoyable both as audience and presenter.

My vision for improving such presentations is to give audiences a reprieve from "death by bullet points" by making presentations much more focused on a storytelling approach, supported by simple image-oriented visuals. It's not easy to get out of the text mindset, but once you do, creativity often begins to flow. By focusing on a few key messages, supported by photography and/or video, refined by rehearsals and simplification, you can create and deliver high-impact presentations.

There are several pundits of this school of thought, including Gar Reynolds in Japan, whose blog Presentation Zen is quite inspirational. Others include Cliff Atkinson, Guy Kawasaki, Dan Pink and Edward Tufte.

There are good presentations and presenters out there. Perhaps the best collection is TED.com which stands for technology, entertainment and design. Another good resource is Alexi Kapterev's Death by PowerPoint slideshow. These individuals and websites should give you a sense of how you can become a more convincing and effective presenter, regardless of whether you are an educator, salesperson, scientist, lawyer, business person or politician.

Here's my offer to help move you along the continuum of effective communication. Send me your PPT, and I will give you a free 5-minute critique, with recommendations. I've never seen a PowerPoint talk that couldn't be improved, even my own.

David

Survey Says!

2008-10-16T12:12:00.004-06:00

Are you getting feedback from your students or colleagues? If so how are you doing it? There are many online services such as Survey Monkey, Poll Everywhere, doodle.ch and so on. There’s also the old fashion email thread option. Within a classroom there are student response systems (clickers) and of course the good ol “give me a show of hands…” option. Have you used any of these? Are you interested? If so join us this Friday 10/17/08 at 11am - 12pm MST as we explore the world of feedback.

Personally I’ve been really excited about the “Live Form” feature within Google Docs. You may have seen it in action with our little questionnaire we have sent out. If not click here to check it out. It’s really easy to create these types of forms in Google docs and I would be more than willing to do a demo. You can join the conversation by going to http://connect.cuonline.edu/flc/ any time during the hour, and choosing "Enter as Guest". Please feel free to pass this on to others who may be interested.

Collaboration

2008-10-10T12:20:00.005-06:00

Today's conversation in the FLC live meeting was about collaboration. Joni led a fantastic conversation on the issues that can potentially block and the structures that can support the quality use of collaboration in online classes. One of my favorite resources in this area comes from the Center for Adaptive Schools. It is a toolkit for establishing norms in groups to promote dialogue over discussion, collaboration over cooperation. I really like it, and thought I would share!

To download your own copy go to www.adaptiveschools.com/pdf/SevenNormsToolkit.pdf . I use page 6 as a prompt for discussion during our Orientation week at the beginning of an online class. During that week I have students respond to the prompts and talk about their learning styles and brainstorm ideas of what they will do to best be present and participate in our class. If issues arise I use modified versions of the suggested conversations, but the graduate level students I teach rarely need more than the opportunity to think about and establish these norms at the beginning of class. I would imagine other groups, students at other levels, or individuals who need to unpack issues with poor collaboration efforts in the past, may find the entire toolkit beneficial.

Improving the odds of students effectively engaging in collaborative work

2008-10-07T15:36:00.008-06:00

One instructional strategy that I use a lot in my online and on-campus courses is collaboration -- group work, teamwork, peer review, connecting with professional communities, and so forth. I like to involve students in collaboration because:

Group work can help counter the isolation some students may feel in an online course.
Exposing students to multiple perspectives and approaches can open their eyes to diverse ideas.
Students can achieve higher expectations with collegial support.
The quality of individual student work can be enhanced through collaboration.
It is a valuable professional and lifelong learning skill.

However, when I am not thoughtful about it and don't provide some structure around students’ collaborative activities, these activities tend to lead to a lot of problems.

I have a put together a handout that lists several guidelines (24 actually, so I need at least 1 more because 24 is bugging me...chocolate to the first person who posts the 25th guideline!) for improving the odds of students effectively engaging in collaborative work. These guidelines cover:

Creating a supportive structure for students’ collaborative work
Forming collaborative student groups
Helping collaborative student groups manage the work
Assessing collaborative work

During our FLC online discussion on Friday, October 10th from 11am to noon, let’s explore how we engage online students in collaborative work, what types of collaborative projects we have going on, and what works and doesn’t work. See you then!

Sage Advice

2008-10-03T14:21:00.002-06:00

With the increasing use of blogs and new media at all levels of education, it's refreshing to come upon a concise reminder of the basic tenets of effective teaching. In the October edition of Campus Technology, Ruth Reynard's article: Avoiding the 5 most common mistakes in using Blogs with students, applies beyond just blogs. Her excellent suggestions should be taken into consideration when developing any educational effort. Teachers should be wary of becoming overly focused on the new tools available to reach their students, and take a few minutes to review these key instructional fundamentals.

generating ideas for slidesharing

2008-10-03T09:11:00.004-06:00

Earlier this week I sent Joni an email to pick her brain on slide sharing. I thought I would also post it here and ask for further comment as well. Read our thoughts below and then add a comment... what do you think?

The Question:
I am looking at Slidecast (via Slideshare) and Voicethread to use in my class... Pecha kucha style... I have now played a bit with both but not enough to have a really strong preference... Have you used both? Do you have opinions to share? With your digital story experience/expertise I thought I'd get your take before I dive in here...

Joni's Response:
Yes, I have used both. I want to like Slidecast better...but I consistently have trouble with audio aligning with visual. However, there are some good FAQ forums out there for helping troubleshoot the issue. For me...I just want things to work, I don't want to troubleshoot. I have limited patience, and give up easily. If you don't, I think it s a great way to go.

I like VoiceThread. Jing works for this sort of thing too, fyi. There are a few things I like about Voicethread. Easy to learn and use. The ability to add original and new comments. That can be a useful feature for some activities. It allows folks to zoom in and out of images...also nice. You can have one image, or set of images, and all within the same file have multiple folks contribue stories/comments on each image.

I think VoiceThread is easy for folks to use, and assists with collaborative commentary. But, I think Slidecast is a way for people to create a more professional product that can be shared via Slideshare...and that's cool.

So, bottom line...I haven't helped. (to which I replied, oh, yes you did!)

Other thoughts?

not instructionally interesting until technologically boring

2008-09-11T09:42:00.007-06:00

I have been so inspired by our weekly conversations in the flc. Even last week… we got off to a slow start… but when we started talking about the effectiveness of screencasts and what makes good video to support learning, the conversation really took off! Regrettably, we ran out of time before we ran out of conversation… it was 12:20 when we finally cut ourselves off. The part of our conversation that is still sticking with me today are the questions: are we in the midst of a changing populous, a changing demographic and therefore we have new expectations for information, interaction? And then, how is increased usability and availability of technology changing the way we teach and learn? We started this conversation talking about kids: their expectations of and familiarity with technology, and the assumptions they make based on the fact these tools have been in their world their whole lives. I see it in my own household. A while back my two girls asked for ‘mommy stuff’ to play with. As they each had a baby on their hip and were headed into the back yard I reached for the play kitchen stuff. “No mom,” they replied, “we need laptops and cell phones.”

But what does this mean for the adult learners I work with? Many did not grow up with current technologies, I sure did not, but we witnessed and were part of the growth of tech over time. And now… so many of us are participating in and/or raising kids who live in this tech-assuming society. Adults taking online classes are making the conscious decision to participate. What does that mean for me as I create the learning environment? Stealing from Clay Shirky: I wonder if we are not so much in an ‘information revolution’ but an ‘information coevolution’. Society and technology has grown and changed together over time throughout history. But the creation of new tools is not what drives change, it is the mainstream adoption of those tools that makes change in a particular manner possible. As Shirky puts it best: “Communications tools do not get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.” As I look at building my online classes my goal is to always have the tools be the manner through which we have the conversation that drives learning. Email, downloading, uploading, using telephones, viewing video and participating in threaded discussion are well established, comfortable- even boring- technologies for my students at this time. Live chat, Instant Message, slidesharing, database searching and video/audio production, not so much. Let’s talk about what we as teachers can do to support students as they build familiarity with the communication tools that can facilitate the conversation. How can we sharpen the learning curve so that we can all, together, better communicate our ideas about teaching and learning in our classrooms?

Blogging Microblogging Tweeting Yikes!

2008-09-04T13:52:00.003-06:00

The concept of blogging has pretty much hit the mainstream and before we could get comfortable with this new means of communication it has already conceived and given birth to a few offspring. Podcasting simply takes blogging to the audio arena while Vidcasting.... well you guessed it. But what about these other things that are starting to pop up. Twitter, Pownce, Seesmic, it doesn't seem to stop. These are essentially limited versions of blogging and vidcasting etc. In other words as you read this blog post you realize quickly that it is much more than a paragraph. Twitter actually limits your post to 140 characters and includes your posts on a "public" timeline. Almost like a public threaded discussion. Pownce is very similar where seesmic takes this threaded blog concept and applies it to video.

As people use and evolve blogging and its children, new uses and instances of the platform are quickly born. Though sometimes a few steps behind, education is certainly taking a firm hold onto blogging, and podcasting. Have you used it? if so how? What sort of benefits can students and teachers gain from blogging?

On a side note Edmodo, a microblogging platform for education, has opened its doors to the edu community. "Edmodo provides teachers and students the ability to share notes, links, and files to foster communication inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers also have the ability to post alerts, assignments, and events to share with their students." Seems like you could call it a microcms. Thoughts?

Blog Virgin

2008-08-11T13:07:00.002-06:00

OK - so here I am, 52 years old and trying my first blog. I learned to ski when I moved to Colorado from Chicago 8 years ago, so why not....

I recently came across an interesting article in Campus Technology, which is a really good publication, called "Textbook Publishing in a Flat World." Our students here at the School of Medicine spend hundreds of dollars in their first semesters on textbooks, and this story describes the transition to much less expensive online texts. Seems the migration is embarking in the subjects of business and economics, but likely will expand into all subjects over time.

I also stumbled onto Dave Warlick's 2 cents worth, a blog with some innovative ideas about teaching in the digital age.

Lastly the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology Conference is happening on 8/12 and 8/13 in Boulder, with what looks to be an excellent program.

FLC Passion

2008-08-01T13:42:00.003-06:00

The FLC has been going strong for about two months and I really think we are on to something. This morning's conversation couldn't illustrate it any better. I jumped into the Connect room at roughly 10:50 a.m. to make sure everything was in order and then proceeded to slip upstairs for a moment to refill my water bottle. I came down only minutes later to find the conversation raging. I loved it! There was barely a chance to say hello! Questions and discussions about teaching and learning had already begun and the community was fully engaged. I am a very passionate person who thrives on it for motivation. To see this was music to my ears. Let's keep rockin and rollin!

This Blog.
As we have mentioned, this blog is for the FLC, that means anyone can be part it and we hope everyone will benefit from the potential that lays in front of us. It is meant to be a seedling and continuation of the meet ups as well as a dialogue of its own. So use it to post, comment, suggest, teach and learn. The possibilities are endless and with the innovations that come from such a community I am not about to predict the path but it will be a good one. I was reading some documentation sent over by a colleague this afternoon which had a valuable list of traits associated with a "Good Learning Blog" We are learners right? ;) Think about these as we build this community conversation.

Diverge not converge
Think about this (not do this)
Constructive Controversy
***Group Ownership
Need to know (not nice to know)

what I took away

2008-07-30T20:09:00.005-06:00

Last week we had an invigorating conversation. The question Brian threw out there was about blogging, and we traversed many topics that centered on interaction and communication. The thinking I came away with was how important it is for me to find the venues, develop the relationships and build a network that supports my online teaching.

I spend a lot of time thinking about teaching. I think about content, I think about interaction, I think about the rhythm, structures and supports that provide space for students to explore their thinking and develop their knowledge and skills around the key ideas of a course. As I continue my journey deeper into the world of online teaching I find that these very structures I seek to provide for my students in the content new to them, are the very same structures and supports I need in learning about the possibilities of technology- something new to me. For me, so far, this is where social networking fits in. I have a strong existing network of colleagues that provide me rich conversation about language acquisition, assessment, instruction, and the state of K-12 education right now. As a parent of school-aged children I am building a network of other parents- those more and differently experienced than me that provides me the support I need as I navigate the murky waters of the professional/parent in my children's schools. What I seek and have been building over the past year is a network to help me build proficiency as I explore the world of interaction and learning via technology.

Last week in talking about different blogging and microblogging tools, I realized that as a social and a visual learner, Twitter has been a powerful resource for me. As other people shared what worked for them I was reintroduced to the idea of chatrooms and IM as a chance for focused conversation. I have explored some mainstream social networking options (Classroom 2.0 and Facebook for example) but find myself continually resistant to focused groups- in topic or participants. In thinking about this notion of focus, it brings me back to why I so much love Twitter. For me what is most important about Twitter is that it is NOT focused. And, the participants are not just educators. The people and conversations I follow bring me to thinking about marketing, media, business AND teaching and I find, for me, this inspires new ideas to percolate and some even rise to the surface. And then, with the 140 character limit I feel I can subscribe to thoughts of many at once, sift through and find the ideas that move me forward in my own thinking. The brevity, the act of synthesizing my own thoughts, and reading the synthesized thoughts of others is productive for me. I think about where this might fit in my classes, and I don't see myself using Twitter between myself and my students... but I could see using that synthesis format: 140 characters or less as a guide for a kind of conversation, a form of tiered questioning, especially late in the week after we have discussed our key topic to then bring our thinking to that next level. Hmmm... an idea worth exploring... I'd be interested in hearing other people's thoughts...

the journey so far

2008-07-24T23:23:00.005-06:00

It is interesting when what starts as a plea for help, the pursuit of innovation, an understanding that there has got to be a better way, turns into the very conversation you were dreaming of and hoping for. When Brian and I started talking about all this, our key conversation was what was important for online learning, how teaching in an online classroom is different from face to face but can be- needs to be- more than distance learning. Reading articles, writing papers, threaded discussions- while good for some things, we knew there was more. Brian turned me on to Twitter, which provided access to people thinking about teaching and learning online, and I was able to see what others were doing and crave the conversation that would help me build on my face to face teaching and learn the tools I needed to use to provide the rich, interactive environment online that is the cornerstone for my success in person. It soon became apparent that we were missing a potential, valuable resource right here at home. Twitter brought us to others connected via social networking channels, but what about right here at our own University? What about people teaching online that we did NOT connect with on Twitter? What about expanding the Twitter conversations to live? To blog? There is something important and powerful about 140 characters, the maximum length of a tweet (the noun referring to a post on Twitter), but some things need more, need deeper exploration and further conversation. Was there a way to connect and converse that would build to expand the benefits we had found so far that had already enriched my classes? I was learning so much from the chance to use different tools, try different things... would it benefit me, as well as others to to connect and work as faculty to together explore and create better online pedagogy? It soon became exceedingly clear that expansion was where we needed to go.

This is where the FLC comes in for me. This is the place where I can talk about what I have been thinking about and trying in my classes. I now blog. I tweet (the verb form= to twitter). I run live chats in my online classes. I use Connect to facilitate student presentations. We use Google docs for some things, threaded discussion for others. We view videos and webcasts. I want to expand to Voicethread. I feel I know so much more than I did, and yet so little to be able to do what I want to do. So I am excited to now to further pursue the interaction and collaboration that will help me better provide the best thinking and learning of the content of my classes and expand the use of online tools to this end. The best part? By our very work here we are exploring a tool I may want to use next in my classes: the group blog! So the learning continues...