Week 11 Evidence of Learning: Animoto

I've been working on the rough draft of my Vision for the Future assignment, and today took the time to explore Animoto as a possibility. I made a presentation just for fun, to see whether it would fit what I would like to accomplish with my VOF assignment.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

My one concern is that I will have writing on my assignment, and a thirty second video is not going to be enough for people to read it. Even if I had it as an audio clip, and showed images while my voice is reading out my VOF in the background, thirty seconds will not be enough. I am starting to wonder if maybe a prezi would be more fitting for my VOF . . .?

Week 11 Reflection: Learning Management Systems

This week's topic on learning management systems (LMSs) certainly struck close to home, as I have been teaching online with Desire 2 Learn (D2L), Vancouver Learning Network's LMS, since last January. As a result, I was very interested in this week's reading on the positives of LMSs in education.

This week's reading certainly sang the praises of LMSs. I would have liked to read more about the difference between full online courses and blended courses (classes that are in person but managed online on an LMS). The reading seems to discuss both simultaneously, not really specifying the differences between the blended courses at Ross's school (BCPSS) and the full online courses at Waymack's school (GCOC). Waymack's school has an 85% completion rate; do Ross's blended courses have a 100% completion rate?

I say this as a teacher at my school used to teach blended courses, but has since moved to teaching online full time. She finds blended courses to be more effective, as there are the positives of face to face communication, yet all the organization and independence of online learning. She is very confident that the future of education is heading in this direction. My personal experience with online courses is that the completion is nowhere near the 85% that Waymack claims to have at Gwinnet County Online Campus. This does not have anything to do with the LMS and is not a criticism of D2L (though I do have many criticisms of D2L), but rather with the "newness" of online learning to many students. In my personal experience, I find that most students find the time management and self-discipline of a full online course extremely difficult, leaving everything to the last minute. In many ways, I think a blended course, which is managed online yet has classroom time, would overcome these problems in many ways.

I think that I will be back in the classroom one day; my contract here is temporary and next year's layoffs mean that there will probably be a lot less positions and a lot more applicants. When that happens, I can see myself using Moodle in my classes. It might be a lot to do in the first year, but it may be viable in my second year. I went to a presentation recently and a teacher did a talk on how he used Moodle in his classes. It was very impressive, and he described success similar to Ross's. This reading has definitely made me think in this vein: what my future with LMSs will be when I am no longer teaching solely online.

Week 10 Evidence of Learning: Animoto for my Vision of the Future Assignment?

In addition to trying to learn about my podcast, I started checking out some of the recommended formats for presenting my Vision of the Future assignment. Below is a screenshot of my new Animoto account, which is my favourite so far.

Week 10 Evidence of Learning: Creating and Publishing a Podcast

Wow. I won't lie: this was by far the hardest tool to figure out so far. Creating the podcast on Audacity was easy to understand, and I am pleased with my podcast. I made it for an assignment in my English 12 course and plan on embedding it and sharing it with the other two English 12 teachers this week.

Learning how to actually publish it was definitely the hard part. I spent hours trying to figure it out, following the tips in Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts without real success. I tried following the About.com tutorial which is how I learned how to make the podcast on audacity in the first place. Stephen's website on How to Create an RSS Feed With Notepad, a Web Server, and a Beer was also really helpful, and made me laugh too, which was a nice break from the stress (check it out at http://www.downes.ca/cgi-bin/page.cgi?post=56).

In the process of consulting these sources, I uploaded my mp3 and rss file to my Google account, as you can see in the screenshot below:



The problem after this was actually linking this up with my blog. So for help, I checked out other blogs on my blogroll. Luckily it sounded like Patrice had a similar experience to me, and her post directed me to box.net, which was an easy website to use. Here is my podcast below:



Overall, I have to admit, I am still a little dazed by this whole podcast experience. I liked creating it, but I do not feel that I have mastered the publishing part. Box.net looks like a good alternative, but at the same time, it is not really visually appealing. I noticed that Aaron had a cool audio clip icon on his blog, which I would like to learn how to create.

On a final note, I hope you enjoy my podcast. It is about a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, entitled The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. If you would like to read it, an online copy is at https://vln.ucourses.com/content/english/ZAEN12/ZAEN12Y09/ZAEN12BY09/Short%20Story%20PDFs/Marquez_HandsomeMan.pdf. I really enjoyed being able to create a podcast that I could use in my course right away. Here's to many more . . .

Week 10 Reflection: The Pros and Cons of Podcasts for Me

Much of the discussion this week has focused on the pros and cons of podcasts, something which has come up and quite a fitting time. Just this week, I met a mother whose son's special need hinders his writing output. When tested orally, he is gifted, but when the test is based on his ability to write, he scores far below the average. She raised the question of how students are assessed in English at our school, which is, to be frank, only on their writing. Every single assignment is a writing assignment (we had some oral presentations but only in summer school, and it was just a bonus assignment).

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I assess students, partially because I am part of an inquiry team, investigating assessment for learning (AFL) at my school. At the moment, my entire course is based on reading and writing (even new ideas since taking this course, such as a collaborative wiki project, is based on writing). Can they read and understand the excerpt provided? Can they then write about it effectively? Those two questions summarize many of the assignments in my course.

So, the pros of podcasting for me:

1. It can assess students in an alternate way of learning. Indeed, one of the biggest criticisms about our online English course is that ESL students like to take it so that they can avoid doing oral presentations/group work, something that shy ESL students would prefer to avoid. If students have to make podcasts for the class to listen to, this would fulfil the speaking component of the oral language prescribed learning outcome (PLO) of English 12. Listening to podcasts made by other students would fulfil the listening component of the PLO (they could prove that they have listened by responding).

2. It is new! We are always trying to do something new with the curriculum. This is partially to avoid the huge problem of plagiarism that occurs in online education, but also to ensure that the course is fresh and creative. Doing something completely new like this would be incredibly positive.

3. It is engaging. A big part of the AFL inquiry team that I am on, which I mentioned earlier, is about examining how assessment can be engaging for the student, thus making the student become responsible for his/her own learning. This new idea of the podcast truly engages students; in fact, Anita's recent post on the discussion board talks about how a colleague found podcasts to be extremely popular with his ESL students.

Then there is the con:

1. Students do not always have access to the necessary software. Some students last year did not even have Microsoft Word, instead submitting assignment on AbiWord or Open Office. To expect students to have a computer good enough to download Audacity and Lame, and to have headphones/speakers and a microphone, might be a bit much. This was part of the reason that last year we made video presentations a bonus assignment: just in case students did not have webcams. We could still make it an assignment, but to address the issue of equipment, it may have to be a bonus assignment.

With all these pros and cons in mind, I am still excited to be able to fulfil the oral language PLO. As I mentioned in previous posts, I am in charge of English 12 summer school this year, and can probably pilot the idea then. The first step, of course, is to learn how to do it myself. Stay tuned for my next post . . .in podcast!

Week 9 Evidence of Learning: Exploring Slideshare

I thought I'd also take a look at another media collection: SlideShare. I had not heard of it before, and found it based on the instructions in the e-portfolio to create our own slideshare. This is yet another media collection that I have not used before, and was not even aware of! This, in combination with what I just explored on TeacherTube, opens up an entire new realm of resources, which is very exciting!

I opened an account and explored a variety of slideshows. I also uploaded a slideshow that I created with another teacher for our recent Writing Across the Curriculum Workshop. This presentation takes you step-by-step through a one hour workshop, so anyone can use it!

Sentence Workshop

View more presentations from Diana Liao.

Week 9 Evidence of Learning: Exploring TeacherTube

Having never used TeacherTube before, I opened an account and spent some time exploring it and thinking about what videos I would actually be able to use right now. I focused on the module that I updated most recently, the English 10 novel study on To Kill a Mockingbird. I found one video that I would like to use in my online course; in fact, I think it's better suited to an online course than in a classroom. It's similar to a theatrical trailer, and students can watch it to get a taste of what they're about to read: http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=158905&title=To_Kill_A_Mockingbird&ref=Dianaliao

There was another one that I really liked, but unfortunately was full of spelling and grammatical errors. It gave me some ideas for future assignments though!

Though this video, found at http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=24266&title=Mr_Duey___Fractions_Official_Video&ref=Dianaliao, has nothing to do with my English courses, I still wanted to share it. It's so funny and inspirational! I just love that this teacher has been so creative and taken the time to make this video. I'm going to share it with the math teachers at my school!

Week 9 Reflection: Media Collections (Video and Audio)

This week's lesson on media collections focused on videos, while the reading that I've chosen to reflect on,There's Something in the Air - Podcasting in Education built on that by focusing mainly on audio, leading up to next week's challenge to create and distribute your own podcast. This really works for me as I use Youtube regularly to post videos on my online course (so it was good to have a refresher and explore TeacherTube, etcetera), but I have never done a podcast. It has been a good movement, for me, from one topic to the next.

The challenge in this week's lesson was to share a video that you created on a video multimedia library. There didn't seem to be a Lesson 9: General Discussion for this (probably in light of the research article wiki discussions and the topic sharing discussion board), so I've posted one of my recent videos here:



This video was to help get my students working; I'm happy to say that it sort of worked, and sad to say that it sort of didn't!

Moving on to the Campbell reading - it was really enlightening because before I read it, I had no idea how to podcast, how to listen to one, where to get one, etcetera. I wouldn't necessarily say that I know how to now, but at least I understand what podcasts are actually used for, where the term comes from, and who listens to them. The comparison of a podcast to a newspaper definitely helped, and I have to say that I feel pretty excited by the idea of listening to podcasts (aka newspaper, in my mind) while "driving, walking or working out at the gym" (Campbell 2005).

That said, I have to make it clear that I do not learn well by listening. It is simply not how I learn, and I chalk it up to the teenage summers that I spent putting lids on bottles in my father's herbal manufactory. These summers, surrounded by machinery that made it impossible to talk to your co-workers, meant that I spent hours every day zoning out, daydreaming in glorious technicolor, while I completed my tasks. Campbell addresses this very point: the listener cannot control the pace of the podcast and is thus at the mercy of the speaker. He then asserts that listening is a skill that people need to learn. Thus is true to a certain extent: listening is important. But being intuitive to what type of learner you are is also a skill, and frankly, is just as important. A stronger defence, which he uses, is that listeners can listen to podcasts over and over again. I can tell you already, that will be me.

A final point on a part in this article that touched me: Campbell discussed iTunes's role in podcasting. This is exciting because I actually have iTunes on my computer! My boyfriend uses it all the time for who knows what. Looks like I'm going to find out next week . . .

Reference:
Campbell, G. (2005). There's Something in the Air: Podcasting in Education. EDUCAUSE Review. 40(6) Retrieved October 31, 2008 from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/TheresSomethingintheAirPo/40587

Week 8 Evidence of Learning: Sharing our Wiki!

Today we posted the url of our wiki for the class (http://electronicbooks.pbworks.com/). It was my first time creating a wiki, and I enjoyed the collaborative nature of the project. I've worked with fellow teachers before, but it was always with teachers who I knew very well and who were already my friends. We always were on the same wavelength anyway, and we worked together, face to face. Working with someone who I didn't know (and who wasn't even in the same city) was a new and interesting experience. It was neat when we were both working on the wiki at the same time - you could see that the other person was working on the same thing as you, even though they were so far away!

I hope you enjoy our wiki!

Week 8 Evidence of Learning: Flickr

This is my first experiment with flickr, and I made a slideshow of our adventure to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. I can easily see myself using this site for personal use. I made this slideshow intending to only post it on my blog, but then ended up e-mailing it to my family because it was so easy to share!

Week 8 Reflection: Social Networking Beyond Text

As I mentioned in a previous post, the English Department at my school has recently decided to pilot a school facebook group. In essence, teachers now have professional facebook accounts associated with the school, and friend students during the school year. It's yet another way for teachers to get information out to students. At the end of the year, all students will be de-friended to make room for the next batch of students.

Not everyone has jumped on board. First of all, why encourage students to check facebook for course information? Why not just have them check the actual course website? It's already a struggle to get students to check the course homepage and e-mail, so why create another excuse for them not to check the course homepage to stay updated? Advocates argue this is the way forward. Students are so in tune with social networking, that it is simply a crime to not acknowledge social networking sites as a way of getting in touch with students. Indeed, William M. Ferriter notes that "conversations - whether they are started on Facebook, through text messages, or in the hallways - play a central role in adolescents' lives" (Ferriter 2010). Why fight it?

Another reason that people are worried about communicating with students over social networking sites is the responsibility involved. With all the photo sharing sites out there, will teachers be responsible for acting upon any incriminating photos? Advocates see this as a lesson that students need to learn: be responsible with what you post on social networking sites. The points made in The Consumerist's scathing article on facebook's ownership rights is just one reason why students must be responsible with what they post for the public. As one reader responds: "License to use your photos against you when you run for office in 20 years" (Walters 2009). I mean, really - has anyone, let alone a student, actually read the mile-long statement of rights posted by facebook (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php)?

Having said this, I probably will jump on board the facebook campaign at my school very soon. Though I feel unsure about its purpose (I side with the question of why encourage students to check facebook for course information), I also believe in unity as a department. After all this a pilot project, and at the end of the year, the department will re-convene and discuss its worth. Stay tuned!

References
Ferriter, William M. "Can't Get Kids to Read? Make it Social." Educational Leadership 67.6 (2010): 87-88. Web. 12 Mar 2010.
Walters, Chris. "Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."." Consumerist 15/02/2009: n. pag. Web. 12 Mar 2010.

Week 7 Evidence of Learning: Wiki in Progress!

Above is a screenshot of how our wiki is progressing. On top of contributing to the actual write-up, we've developed the sidebar with some related articles and Katherine has added some images. Check it out at http://electronicbooks.pbworks.com/!