Sheryl's Blog

I have learned so many new technologies in this class that I’ve decided to create podcasts for my ESL students. I signed up with Quia to create exercises in combination with the podcasts to practice English. I will continue to add content to the website: http://shaylo99.podbean.com/  and even see if I can make any cool cash. Hey, the internet is no longer “the future”; it’s here today, and to stay!

Class is over. It was a great experience and I learned so much. More than that, I had been thinking about using some technologies such as blogs and podcasts, but on my own, I found it difficult to find the time to learn these. Because I was forced to, for the class, I accomplished something, and feel a bit more comfortable with a lot more of Web 2.0 technologies. So much so that I’ve decided to continue blogging. I will leave this as a record of my class, and have moved my personal blog to a new site. Actually, when I had to set up this Digital Scrapbook, I didn’t know what I was doing and set up two, one here and one on Blogger. So, I’ll use the Blogger site from here on in. If interested, you can find it here:

http://mydigitalscrapbook.blogspot.com/

This is my final assignment for this class, that and turning in this scrapbook. It’s been a challenge but I feel enriched by the experience, and more than a little confident in my newly found (and tested) knowledge of internet sources and technologies available for teaching online. It’s been “All Good”.

23 Things Every Online Teacher Should Know:

1. Know that less is more: don’t overwhelm students with too much new technology.
2. Know your CMS before the class starts as well as possible, and know who to see if you run into problems.
3. Know that it may be the first online class for your students so create a scavenger hunt for them to get to know the CMS.
4. Know that your students will feel more comfortable if they can see and hear you. Make an introductory video of yourself welcoming them to class.
5. Know that ice breakers help students get to know each other, use them to start the class off.
6. Know that students appreciate (positive) and timely feedback; state response time and your availability at the beginning.
7. Know that for organization purposes, spread sheets make your job easier. Create one of your class roster to keep track of the communication; making sure you connect to each student at least once per course.
8. Know a guest speaker can add a dimension you can’t. Consider inviting a past student or specialist in the field for a class.
9. Know that students will be more organized if given consistent due dates for assignments and quizzes. Keep it simple.
10. Know that plagiarizing and cheating are a concern; go over what is and is not acceptable within your class; have them sign a Code of Honor.
11. Know that students want to feel the teacher is present; create both synchronous and asynchronous means of communicating.
12. Know that students want to feel a sense of community.(http://www.edutopia.org/online-peer-to-peer-collaboration)
13. Know that students are not always aware of learning styles. Have them take inventory of themselves here: (http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire )
14. Know that 21^st Century skills are collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Help your students acquire these by creating a group project. (http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/teaching-strategies/project-based-learning-for-the-online-classroom.html)
15. Know that Google is more than just a search engine; have students use Google Docs to collaboratively work together on their group projects.
16. Know that Google is also a free means of communicating without giving out personal phone numbers. Have students sign up for Google Voice for communicating with you and other students.
17. Know that discussion questions can be a large part of online classes; create meaningful discussion questions. (http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/asynchronous-learning-and-trends/questioning-styles-for-more-effective-discussion-boards/)
18. Know that your role in class is different than in f2f classes; think of yourself as a facilitator.(http://www.fullcirc.com/community/facilitips.htm)
19. Know that contributing to discussions will take time, for that matter, the change to teaching online will take time; be patient.
20. Know that you don’t have to recreate the wheel; investigate learning repositories for lessons already created. (http://www.wisc-online.com/ListObjects.aspx)
21. Know that others have come before you; learn from them. (http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-reports/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/)
22. Know that students need a ‘take-away’; Create a Wiki library of your class resources that everyone has to contribute articles to as the class moves from module to module.
23. Know that surveys, especially for your own evaluation purposes, can be a helpful resource; try Survey Monkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/)

Almost forgot this form of communicating; guess because it’s so ubiquitous in today’s world. I prefer email, or on a CMS there is a message function that is easy to use.

My email preference is Google, or Gmail. I have come to appreciate all that Google brings to a classroom setting and like to keep things simple and the same as much as possible. I think whatever choice of communicating you choose is fine, as long as it’s well-known to the students.

I have gotten a Google Voice account and number and would use that as a means of communicating with students and for student-to-student text messaging (the preferred methods of most students at this point, I think). The good things about Google Voice are 1) it’s FREE, 2) you don’t have to give out personal numbers to people you don’t really know, 3) messages can be sent to your phone of choice (home, cell, office), and 4) it will also send you an email. All in your preferences that is. Love these new tools that keep appearing!

Mr. Bean–Exam Cheat for fun, if you haven’t seen this, it’s a good lead-in to an online class discussion on cheating!

Getting to the end–for our (almost) last project, we had to use something we’d learned to “teach back” a lesson on cheating/security or MOOC’s, (Massive Open Online Courses). I have something to say on cheating since it is something that happened to me, so I created a podcast of my experience and what I feel is the outcome of that experience: Have students sign a Code of Honor. I used this article:  “Encouraging Academic Honesty Toolkit”

 http:/www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/academic_honesty.pdf

which illustrates how big an impact (25-33 %) less cheating when students signed a Code of Honor.  I took some of their information and used it to create a “Code of Honor” that I, personally, will use in an online course.

So, here it is, a public confession as to how I got caught for plagiarizing when I was in college. From that, I conclude that educating students within the framework of each and every class, even to have them sign a ‘Code of Honor’ is a huge step in the direction of helping students to reach down within themselves for their integrity and dignity and to help them do the right thing no matter the pressure around them.

The ‘Code of Honor’ and my podcast can be found here:

http://shaylo99.podbean.com/

For an elective, I have chosen Go Animate.

http://goanimate.com/

Thanks to a fellow classmate who used this site in her Teach Back. It looks like a good tool and a fun one to use. Can’t wait until I have the time to play around with it.

Our task this week was to create a quiz with feedback or a survey for assessment purposes. I already had experience with surveymonkey and I would use it for evaluation purposes; it’s a handy tool.

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This week we were taking a look at creating our own content. I’m way behind, we move though so much technology each week, makes my head spin. Last week we had to find a video to use in class and a podcast. For extra credit, we had to find a Learning Object. That was my first encounter with repositories of learning objects. So much is new…

This week, I am struggling to create my own podcast. It is due tomorrow night at midnight and I haven’t had the time necessary to figure out how to edit in Audacity. It WILL be added soon, though, so stay tuned.