Ah, the halfway point. Classes are in full swing, students are eagerly working away on projects, and I always take a bit of time to reflect on where things are at so far. This semester, I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time contemplating the role of social media and technology in the classroom. Here are a few things I’ve been reminded of: Social media is not a one-size fits all solution. At the beginning of the term, I eagerly whipped up a Facebook Group for my class. I promoted it to all my students, posted some content, did all the right things. But, it just didn’t take. Only about 28 of my 75 students signed up. And I found that out of that number, only 1 or 2 seemed interested in interacting there. I posted interesting links and tried to start conversations, but since there was so little involvement, I didn’t feel confident using it as a main communications tool. Why didn’t this work? Well, I could probably have spent more time promoting it to the class, but you know how it is when you’re a teacher. Other work and issues take priority. But really, I think that it just isn’t the right solution for this group. The dynamic isn’t there. Perhaps they are using Facebook for other things – and aren’t interested in talking about their classes there. I had assumed it would just work because I had used a Facebook Group to much success the semester before, in my Web Media class. But the nature of that course is to learn about social networks and Web 2.0 technology….so it sort of stands to reason that students would have a vested interest in interacting this way. It’s not that I won’t try Facebook again. It has been a useful way for students to contact me and I don’t mind keeping that aspect going. I also have another college event-based project kicking off soon (which I’ll talk about in a few weeks) that is going to make extensive use of a Facebook group. I’ll be eager to share my learnings from that experience. But remember, just because a tool is popular doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right fit. Don’t force it. Just ensure you’ve found other ways to connect with your students and all will be fine. Every year, students are more social media savvy. I have been teaching my video production course for 3 years, and I can tell you that, 3 years ago, things were very different in the classroom. In 2007, less than 10 people in my class of nearly 80 raised their hands when I asked who was involved in social networks. Today, almost everyone is on Facebook and about half my group use Twitter. Nearly everyone has either watched or uploaded video to YouTube. My students seem much more aware of the power of social media to connect and share information than they did a few years ago, and I think there are two reasons for this. First, social media is much more in the mainstream now than it was back then. There are simply more people using it. Second, every year, many of my first-year students are getting closer and closer to being part of the digital native generation. This online communication stuff comes naturally to them, because they’ve never really known anything different. In just 4 years from now, our entry-level students will never have known life without the World Wide Web. That is remarkable. How does this change the way us 30-and-40-and-50 somethings teach students born in the mid-1990’s about technology? More on that in a later post, but it’s an interesting question. Suffice it to say that today’s students are more comfortable and know more about technology than we do, and that’s becoming more true all the time. We are going to have to find ways to adapt to that. What is working. I’ve had some successes with technology this semester. I’ve made myself available to my students on Facebook, Skype, and Twitter. Though I have far from a 100% adoption rate, I do get messages and questions from students through all these tools. It works for me because it integrates well with my day. I’m not always having to login to the school email (a 3 step process in my world) to check messages. The students come to me on social tools if they need something, because they know they can find me there. I’m able to get back to them within the natural ebb and flow of my work day. Not only that, but I find that the students I am connecting with online outside of class tend to be more engaged in class. They are getting the clarifications they need to thoroughly understand the material, and even bringing that understanding back to their classmates, which is great. I’m also able to flag certain issues and share the solutions to the class in what I feel is a more timely and efficient way (i.e. I can deal with an issue by sending an announcement to all and don’t have to wait till the next class). All in all, it’s been a great term so far. I’m looking forward to seeing what clever and creative video projects my students come up with over the rest of the term. And you? What’s been your experience with technology and teaching so far this semester? What’s working? What isn’t? Please share your stories in the comments! [photo credit: jisc_infonet on Flickr]
The Creative Power of the Mindmap
I was back in college the first time I heard about the concept of mindmapping. My Project Management professor showed it to us, as a way to brainstorm all the things that needed to be done to successfully complete a creative design project. That day, my eyes were opened to a new way of doing things. I’ve always been a visual thinker. I can write up lists till the cows come home, but nothing really solidifies in my head until I see it represented in pictures. That’s why my notebooks often look more like abstract art than handwritten notes. Boxes, arrows, squiggly lines and doodles help me to really understand what ideas look like. I teach creative subjects in a creative environment to creative students. Many of them are just like me – they think in pictures. Many of my students are also like me in that they sometimes have a hard time getting focused. Their minds wander, they get too many ideas, and they end up not realizing their full potential. I’m sure you have students like this too, especially if you’re teaching creative types in a creative setting. For creative project development, there is no better tool, in my opinion, than the mindmap. Mindmapping is far and away the best method of getting out of a creative rut, focusing on the right ideas, and the first step in kicking off any sort of creative project. It’s useful across fields of study and for any kind of project. It’s a technique that I think all teachers should really consider passing on to their students. So, where to begin? Well, I could send you searching all over the Web for mindmapping tools, techniques and how-to’s to pass onto your students. But like me, you don’t have a lot of time, so my friend and colleague Mark Dykeman has done the hard work for you. For those of you who don’t know Mark, he’s the Brain behind the award-winnning blog Broadcasting Brain, and the head of the Ka-tet at the creativity blog Thoughtwrestling, at which I’m privileged to be a contributor. Mark is an expert on mindmapping techniques, and he’s compiled his knowledge into a wonderful e-Book called Unstuck, Focused, Organized – Using Mind Mapping. It’s an easy to follow, step by step guide that will help you learn the techniques required to use mindmaps to their full potential. The steps in the book can be easily passed onto your classes. Here are some of the things people are saying about Unstuck, Focused, Organized – Using Mind Mapping: “Dykeman’s new book is for people who are at their wit’s end, who don’t know what to do, or are having trouble getting started. It’s a book intended for people with the very messy challenge of — what to do with my life. It’s also a book for those of us who are more visually/diagramatically wired. Not all of us can run our life from a plain old fashioned to-do list!” — Gregg Fraley, Jack’s Notebook If you choose to pick one up, not only will you get the 50 page e-Book, but also the added bonus of Mark’s audio interviews (and transcripts) with three creativity and content experts – mindmapping guru Chuck Frey, Remarkablogger’s Michael Martine and entrepreneur and creative super hero Chris Brogan. These interviews provide tremendous insights into creative process and are the perfect teaching aids. The eBook is available to purchase for just $37.00. But, Mark decided that mindmapping is such a valuable skill for educators and their students, that he’s decided to offer the eBook to to teachers and students between now and December 31st, 2010 for just $30.00. So, you can purchase the book here (affiliate link) and enter the promo code suzemuse7 and you’ll qualify for the discount. I really hope you enjoy the e-Book, please leave a note in the comments and let me know what you think! [photo credit: sirwiseowl]
Life at 30,000 Feet
I don’t fly all that often. Maybe a half dozen times a year. Certainly not as much as some people. When I do, I have plenty to complain about. The seats are way too cramped. People don’t cover their mouths when they sneeze. I never have a functioning TV control on my arm rest. But then I look out the window. We’re up, above the clouds. It’s always sunny up here. All the worries, frustration, and stress of down there melt when I’m up here. For that moment, when I see the magnificence of the world below me and realize what a remarkable feat it is that we’re even floating up here at all, everything else stops. If only for a while. That’s what the 30,000 foot view is like. Down there on Earth, our day to day lives are mired in events, things, situations. We please some people. There’s no pleasing others. We rush from meeting to meeting, place to place, never having enough time and trying to do too much. But here, at 30,000 feet, there’s not a whole lot we can do. We can’t change much up here, like the fact that it’s always sunny above the clouds. We definitely can’t just get up and leave. Does that mean we’re stuck? Well, maybe. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. At 30,000 feet, we’re literally a step back. (Well, a whole lot of steps back.) We can see the things below us as a whole. We see how the rivers connect to the oceans, how the land is being used, whether for cities, or food, or travel. We understand at a glance how everything is interconnected. When we’re down there, we don’t see things the same way. We can’t see the rivers, so we forget about them. We can’t see the farms, so we take them for granted. We can only see the bumper of the car in front of us, not the whole road. We forget to appreciate anything that is outside of our own periphery. We continue like this, day in and day out, rarely expanding out of our immediate space and the the situations that confront us. It wears on us. We become captured in our own minds, working and toiling, and stressing for what? The answer never comes. Until we climb above. Up here, we can not only look at ourselves, but we can clearly see everyone else too. We think about our family, friends, colleagues, students – and suddenly, they stop being separate from us. From up here, everyone is with us. We’re the same, in every way. It’s just our circumstances that are different. We all have the infinite potential. We all have the ability to dream. From the 30,000 foot view, problems become easier to solve. Difficult situations and people become easier to deal with. Answers become apparent. Down there does have its share of problems. There’s bad situations and bad luck everywhere. From up here, though, it looks beautiful, and peaceful, and serene, and full of possibility. Wouldn’t that mean then, that the secret is to always look at things from the 30,000 foot view? [photo credit: Robert in Toronto on Flickr]
For the Love of Teaching
I kind of fell into the whole teaching thing. It was never my plan to be a teacher. I had no desire to attend teacher’s college. In fact, when I was growing up, I was never really even that fond of school. I liked to learn, but was more self-guided. I didn’t enjoy the structure of school; my attention span was far too short for long, boring lectures and 2 hour exams. But, 20 years on in my career, here I am. A teacher. Math sucks. Mr. Hanley was my Math teacher in Grade 11. I despised Math. I was lousy at it, it ruined my A average, and it was all I could do to muster up the energy to go to class. I’ll never forget my first day of Grade 11. I was in a brand new school, thousands of kilometres away from where I’d spent most of my childhood, and I was miserable. I walked into Mr. Hanley’s math class with a sense of dread. I didn’t know anyone, and I was convinced that I was going to flunk. I was sombrely sitting at my desk, hatching my plan to escape out the window when suddenly, the door of the classroom opened and Mr. Hanley walked in, with a very serious look on his face. He resembled a younger, more conservatively dressed version of Dr. Johnny Fever from the 70s TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati. He shot a death dart glance around the room and the class went silent. I wondered which of the windows I should make a break for. Mr. Hanley quietly sat down at his desk. He sorted papers and shuffled paper clips for what seemed an eternity. Then, ever so slowly, he reached for his desk drawer. You could hear a pin drop. He carefully pulled out a baseball hat, and put it on. I quickly realized that this was no ordinary baseball hat. It had a brim about a foot long. On the front of the hat were two giant, Disney-esque cartoon eyes. Stuck to the brim were two large, white felt teeth. On the sides of the hat were pasted two long, floppy ears. It was Goofy. Then, with a completely straight face, Mr. Hanley said, “So, are we ready to do some Math?” I think we all have a teacher in our past that made an impact on us. Mr. Hanley was that teacher for me. Not only was he a laid back guy, but he treated each one of his students like a real person. We weren’t “dumb kids” in his eyes. He knew we all had infinite potential. Each day he showed up to class, Mr. Hanley had a smile on his face, and a sparkle in his eye. You could tell he just loved to teach. And even though I still hated Math, I didn’t mind going to his class, because he was simply a joy to be around. He not only helped me to “get” fractions, he helped me to understand that it was okay to be an awkward teenager. That even though I might struggle with stuff, that I was fine just the way I was. He helped me realize that challenges are part of life, and if I just try, I could make it. I got a B in his class, and I know that it wasn’t because I was any good at Math. It’s because Mr. Hanley’s passion made me want to succeed, so I tried harder. Let’s not forget why we’re here. Another school year has started. If you’re a post-secondary teacher like me, you’re swamped. You’ve got dozens of new students, and not a whole lot of time to learn their names, let alone what makes each one tick. It’s easy to get caught up in the stress of class prep, marking and administration. It can feel like you’re on autopilot, just trying to make it through another class. Stop. Step back for a minute. Forget the prep and the admin for a minute. Like Seth says, don’t rehearse so much. Take a deep breath. Your students are not looking for someone who will just recite facts at the front of the class and slap marks on the top of their pages. They are looking to you to give them an experience that will help them to expand. They are looking to you to share what you know. And that doesn’t come from a PowerPoint slide. It comes from YOU. The true love of teaching for me, is not in standing at the front of my class spewing information. It’s in sitting down beside someone and letting them show me what they’ve achieved. It’s in the conversations that happen before, and after, and during class. It’s in the Skype conversation I had with one of my students at 11pm last night, because he was excited to talk about a video he came across. And mostly, it’s in knowing that, in my own small way, I’ve been able to help some people realize their potential, like Mr. Hanley did for me. That’s what gets me up in the morning. That’s what makes me show up to class even after I’ve already worked a 10 hour day. Thanks, Mr. Hanley, wherever you are. You taught me what it means to be a good teacher. And I aspire to be like you every time I walk into a classroom. Now, where did I put my Goofy hat? [image credit: Patrick Haney on Flickr]
Should You Connect with Your Students on Social Networks?
Note: I’m coming at this from the perspective of a College teacher, where my students are adults. I know there is fierce debate over teachers connecting on Facebook with high school or younger students. I’m not an expert on K-12 education, and can only speak from my own experience in adult education. This semester, I have about 75 students (about 36 in each of two classes). I get them for 11 weeks. The first day I go into a new class, I’ve got a whole group of new people I need get to know very quickly. In order to be effective as their teacher, I need to know some things about each of them – how they learn best, how they are motivated, and any issues or difficulties they might have. They have the expectation of me that I’m going to be able to understand what they need. That’s a big challenge, with so many new people to get to know in a very short amount of time. Unfortunately, what happens in many situations like mine, is that the more outgoing students tend to get more face time in class, and the quieter ones sometimes have difficulty getting involved. It’s an ongoing battle to ensure that everyone is given the time and attention they need to be set up for success. Social media changes this. You see, the very nature of connecting online allows you to expedite the process of getting to know someone. By extending your connections with students into the online social world, you can find out all sorts of things that can give you insight into what makes your students tick. In my 1st year video production class tonight, I encouraged my students to connect with me on Skype, and through Twitter and Facebook. I totally gave them the choice to connect with me – I didn’t force it (I think I used the phrase “connect with me on Facebook and Twitter, at your own peril” 😉 ). A few have connected with me so far. I’ve gone in, viewed their profiles, and found out information that may seem inane to some, but is actually extremely valuable, and interesting. I found out if they have kids, or dogs, or budgies. I found out what kinds of movies they like, if they are musicians, or artists, or carpenters. I learned a bit about the things they care about, and saw little snippets of how they interact with others. I associated faces (avatar photos) with names. I’ve given them the opportunity to do the same with me. Those students I’ve connected with so far, I’m going to remember. I’m going to be able to talk with them between classes, and keep a closer eye on their progress, and on the things that may either be helping or hindering it. Sometimes, teachers are concerned that opening oneself up via social networks breaks some sort of barrier between themselves and their students; that somehow their authority as a teacher is compromised because students know their dog’s name or where they went for dinner last night. Don’t you think we owe it to our students to be connecting with them on a more human, personal level? Certainly, every teacher has the option to share only as much or as little personal information as they are comfortable with students, classmates, colleagues and even friends. But we have to remember that, we are all just people, with experiences, and lives, and situations, who, for just a few short weeks, will be sharing some space, and time, and knowledge with one another. By even opening the door a just a crack wider, have an opportunity to get to know our students for who they really are, gain new insights into helping them be more successful, and ultimately, positively impact our classroom environment. What say you? [photo credit: Spencer E Holtaway on Flickr]
Tech in the Classroom is Cool, But it’s Not About the Tools
In my part of the world, today is the first day of school for many post-secondary students. Some are heading into their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year – others are walking in the doors for the first time. It’s interesting times in the world of education; technology has enabled us, as teachers, to expand the classroom experience beyond anything most of us could have imagined 10 years ago. I have successfully used technology in my classroom for many different things – I’ve built online communities where students can connect, used Wikis to share information, created YouTube channels for students to show off their work, and brought guest speakers in via Skype. I’m encouraging my students to ask me fewer questions by email and more questions by Twitter and Skype, because it’s faster and could potentially benefit others. I use tools like VisibleTweets and CommonCraft as visual aids. This year I intend to do all of these things, and more. I’ll be leveraging YouTube to connect with my classes when I can’t be there in person. I’ll be having more Skype-based guest speakers, and playing with CamtasiaRelay to do software tutorials. I’m sure many of you will be exploring similar tools, and figuring out how to best use them in the classroom. But let’s take a step back for a moment. It’s really, really easy to get caught up in all the tools and toys and shiny things – there are so many things to learn about and explore. We run the risk of getting so caught up in the tools, that we can start to forget about what our purpose is as teachers. My job in the classroom (virtual or otherwise) is to create an environment where students feel confident and inspired. I want them to have the courage to try new things, share their ideas, and work together to create good things. In order for them to succeed at this, I need them to be attentive, engaged, and understanding of what is expected of them. If I spend too much time focused on the technology, I’m not focused on them. Somewhere along the way, I need to find a balance. I want to leverage the power of social media and other emerging technologies to improve the experience for my students, but I need to be careful not to let technology get in the way of the learning. If I’m including technology in a class, I test everything out before I get to the class. If it’s Skype, I make sure I’ve got the person in my contacts. I try a test call on the computer I’ll be using during the class. Even something simple like VisibleTweets should be set up ahead of time, so you can just let it run in the background. Make the technology part of the background of what you are doing, not the emphasis. Use the tools as just that – things to aid you in the process. Always be prepared for a technology #fail. Even the best of tools go down occasionally. Internet connections are slow, or stop working altogether. With that said, always have a backup. I download videos from YouTube as a separate file so I can run them locally if need be. If my Skype connection fails, I have the speaker’s phone number handy so they can talk via speaker phone if necessary. Remember, the emphasis is on the learning experience – and the experience shouldn’t fail just because the technology breaks. Your students should always come away getting what you promised them, with or without the shiny toys. Technology in the classroom is a wonderful thing, but remember, it’s not the be all and end all of the classroom experience. Like everything else, education is about people, not technology. Keep the focus on your students and their learning, plan and prepare your use of technology, and the rest will fall into place. And you? What are your plans to include tech in the classroom this year? How will it enhance the learning experience? [photo credit: Rego on Flickr]
Dreaming of Connected Classrooms
Ever since I started teaching at the college level a few years ago, I’ve been dreaming. My first dream was to design a course that discussed emerging technologies, social media, and communication on the Web. I took my dream to the powers that be at the college and they gave me a shot. The course, Web Media, was so successful, that the next year it became part of the full time curriculum. It’s one of the most rewarding classes I teach, and I continue to be connected with former students who say that it really helped them get a leg up in the world of new media communication. For that, I’m proud and grateful. I’ve been immersed in social media and online communications for quite some time. I was in on the ground floor of many things – I was on Facebook way before most of my high school buddies. My user ID on twitter is 821,845 (there are over 100 million users now). I’ve written 325 posts on this blog in 3 years. At about 1,000 words per post, that’s the equivalent of about 3 full-length novels. I’ve come a long way in the online world….but I want to go further. I want to dream bigger. It’s no secret that computers and the Internet have fundamentally changed the way education is delivered. I remember the days before computers in the classroom, as I’m sure some of you do. The teacher would write and draw on a chalkboard. Presentations were hand written on plastic transparencies and displayed on an overhead projector. We watched filmstrips on an actual film projector, and listened to audio cassettes. Material was presented to us through different media, but often, what we were giving back were just flat, handwritten regurgitations of what we’d learned. Now, anyone can record a radio show, or make a video documentary. Anyone can publish a novel or a photo travelogue. Most importantly, we can share our creations with the world. There is tremendous power in our ability learn by creating, publishing, and sharing content online. This power has translated well into the classroom environment, and it’s enriched the learning experience for many people. I want to take this a step further. Many classrooms today are using technology to create wonderful things. Some are even sharing it with the world. I create YouTube channels for my classes, and encourage my students to blog their college experience. That is all wonderful, and feedback from my students shows that they see great value in this. It falls short though, because classrooms are still mostly communicating with themselves. Sure, in some cases, they are showing off their creations to friends and family, but my YouTube channels are mostly so my students can look at their own and each others’ work. It rarely has much impact outside the classroom. This is where I see a great opportunity. Most community colleges have some sort of new media or Web program now. Some even have courses specific to new communication and social media. But, in my experience, these classes often don’t know much outside the walls of their own experience. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could some how start to connect beyond the walls of our own classrooms? Wouldn’t it be awesome if our classes began to connect and share with other classes? Imagine a college class in Ottawa and another in Melbourne not only sharing what they’re learning with each other, but actually collaborating on projects. The possibilities are open and wide and endless. It Starts With Us. The challenge with connecting classrooms is not in the actual connecting – we have the technology. The challenge is in actually figuring out logistically how to do it, and how it fits into our courses. And that starts with us teachers. Before we can connect our students, we have to connect with each other. We have to start sharing, and connecting, and collaborating on the best ways to facilitate these interactions. We have to understand how connecting our classrooms will tie into the learning objectives for our courses, and how we’re going to set our students up for success. So this is my challenge to you. If you’re a teacher who is interested in exploring connected classrooms with me, get in touch. It doesn’t matter if you’re teaching at the college level or not, I want to hear from you. Leave me a comment or hit me up on Twitter. Let’s have a chat and see if we can find some ways to dream big together. Who knows, we might just open up a whole new world of possibilities for learning.
My Online Back To School Toolkit
It’s that time of year again! I love back to school. I’m excited to meet my new group of students (I always have first-years in the Fall), and look forward to helping some future web designers and developers learn some new skills. Teaching is one of the most rewarding things I do. With all of the other stuff I have going on – my business, speaking, blogging commitments, and volunteer work – prepping and managing a 6 hour a week course load with 80 students can easily get overwhelming. Fortunately, I’ve found some online tools that have helped to make things not only more efficient for me, but more interesting for my class. Here are a few ways I’m bringing online tools into my classrooms. Google Docs One of the major issues I had when I was first starting out with teaching was I was always having to move files around. I’d prep my PowerPoint slides, write my notes and prepare handouts, then I had to either copy them remotely to the college network (which can be slow and unreliable), save them on a USB drive, or email them to myself. It was an extra step that could wind up in catastrophe if I forgot to do it (which I did, once or twice). Enter Google Docs to save the day! Google Docs, if you’re not familiar, is a web-based word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet suite from Google. With Google Docs, I keep all my class files in one spot, and I can access them from anywhere with an Internet connection (even on my smart phone!). Now, I just do my prep at home, and when I get to school, I call up my documents in Google Docs and off I go. One less step, and less risk I’ll forget something important at home. The best part about Google Docs is you can share documents with others. So, instead of printing handouts, why not save some paper and share a handouts folder to your class? Or, have them write their assignments in Google Docs, and share them to you for marking? There are plenty of applications. Once you start using Google Docs, I promise, you’ll never go back. Class Community Sites Maintaining good communication with your class outside of class can be a big challenge. LMS systems like BlackBoard only go so far, and can be clunky and time consuming to use. I’ve taken my classes to a collaborative space outside the LMS environment, creating a Class Community site around my course. In this space, which is invitation only and not available publicly, I can post announcements, share links and videos (it’s a great place to post the YouTube videos I talked about here), and it provides a forum for dialogue not only between you and your class, but between classmates as well. My students love the interactivity, and I love the convenience and easy updating. I have used Ning in the past, and am now experimenting with Google Sites. You don’t have to be a web designer to set up a site using these tools. If you can create a Word document, you can have a Class Community Site. Often as teachers we can feel isolated – we’re not always sure what other things our students are learning in their programs of study. Having a space to connect with other teachers could go a long way towards creating a better learning experience for our students. A Community Site can be taken a step further to a Faculty Site as well. Imagine being able to share with teachers in the same program or department as yourself. You can share tips, ideas, discuss challenges, and help each other out. I think there is huge potential in creating dialogue between teachers, especially teachers within the same program. Skype Video My students love guest speakers. A couple of times a semester, I will bring engaging and inspiring folks from industry into class to present and do Q and A. It adds another viewpoint and dimension to the class, and they get a break from listening to me yammer on. Often I bring in local people, but since I’ve been out here on the Internet, I’ve met so many people in other cities and countries who have so much wisdom and experience to share. Since I don’t have a budget to bring them to my class physically, I use Skype Video, and it works beautifully. The students enjoy it immensely and I think my guest speakers get a charge out of it too. Skype is free and many college classrooms have web cams now. Why not give it a whirl? Those are just three simple ways you can make your teaching life easier using technology. All of these options are absolutely free and available to anyone online. What’s in your online teaching toolkit? [photo credit: AllanCaplan on Flickr]
How to Incorporate Emerging Technologies to your Teaching Today
I was thinking back to the first time I was in college, back in 1988 (ooh. I’m really dating myself now). There were no computers in the classroom. We lugged around armloads of textbooks and binders with foolscap clicked into them. There were no text messages coming in on our mobile phones to distract us from what was happening in class (although we did pass notes). Times sure were different back then. Ironically, I was in a technical school, taking a technical program (TV Broadcasting). So, I was surrounded by technology every day, in the form of TV cameras, video switchers, lights, editing controllers, and the like. To add insight to irony, we were using these tools to communicate messages to audiences. Our great instructors used the technology to help us learn to communicate. I guess I was lucky that way. What the Tech? Flash forward 20 years or so, and technology isn’t just something you learn about in trade school. It’s incorporated into everything we do. Kids are growing up not knowing life without mobile devices and the Internet, and any of us who are Gen X or earlier are being forced to catch up to a world in which technology is at once ubiquitous and elusive. As teachers, this can put us in a hairy predicament. We’re just trying to figure out how our new dumbphone* works, and our students are toting iPads and Androids in their backpacks. Yet, we’re supposed to be the experts in the classroom that have it all figured out. We’re supposed to be using the technology as proficiently and seamlessly as they are. It’s enough to make some teachers want to bury their heads in a heavy textbook and never come out. Rocket Surgery 101. It doesn’t have to be this way. Bridging the gap between what we know as instructors and how our students are learning isn’t as scary as it seems. The problem is, there are SO many choices as to how we’re going to leverage technology in the classroom, that it’s hard to know where to begin. So, I thought it might be useful to provide a couple of tips that you can try out with your students starting right away. I want you to give it a whirl, and report back on how it works. Remember, it’s all an experiment! Keep in mind, that these tips don’t just have to apply to education in a formal classroom environment. If you’re holding any kind of workshops or training on any level, these techniques can apply. Virtual Office Hours Most Learning Management Systems (LMS) have some sort of capacity for holding live chats. Some instructors use this to hold Virtual Office Hours – a set time every week where they are available online to answer questions or concerns, or discuss various topics. It works well and students like the interaction, particularly in a Distance Learning environment. I suggest taking Office Hours to a new level. Why not start off the discussion by posting a video on YouTube and sharing it with the class? You can record straight into YouTube, so you don’t need any fancy editing gear – just a microphone and a web cam. I use this to discuss current events and give reminders of assignment deadlines mostly. But we’ve all been in the situation where we get 20 emails from students asking the same question. Why not use the video to respond to everyone at once? Once you’ve posted the video, send out the link to the class with the announcement of when your Virtual Office Hours will be taking place. They can view the video, and then show up to the chat already having some discussion points and also having any potential issues cleared up. Then, if you want to get really fancy, you can take your chat outside of the LMS, and move to something like Skype (live audio chat, good for small groups), or Oovoo (multi-way video chat). Other tools worth looking at include TalkShoe, where you could do a live broadcast and have students “call in”, then share the show with anyone who couldn’t make it to the discussion, or even share it with other classes! Facebook Groups If you haven’t already created a group for your class on Facebook, do it. Let’s face it…the majority of your students are spending all their time on Facebook anyway, so why not be where the action is? Think of a Facebook Group as an opportunity to create a living, breathing environment where the class can share links, have discussions, and comment on things. You can post photos, videos, links, and events – so there are tons of possibilities. Perhaps you want to post your Office Hours video there, instead of on YouTube? Easy peasy, and again, you can record straight from your web cam. Maybe you want to share links to recent news, or post industry events like tradeshows and conferences to the calendar. What’s cool is, anything you post will show up in group members’ Facebook stream, so as they go about their day, they will see bits and pieces of things relevant to what they are learning. It’s a way to keep them learning even when you’re not in the classroom. And once encouraged, people love to share, so suddenly, your class is helping to create the content for your course! The great thing about Facebook Groups, is you can make them secret. That means, the class group won’t show up in public searches, and it’s by invitation only, so you can carry on in a private manner without worrying about a bunch of non-students getting in there and cluttering things up. And if you’re worried about becoming Facebook friends with your students just so you can have them in the group, don’t. You can set individual preferences inside of Facebook so particular friends only see what you want them to see. So there you have it. Two quick ideas that you can start
Changes are Afoot
I’ve been musing here for over 3 years. It seems like much longer! But, it IS Internet time after all, so that’s like, 15 years, right? I’ve often thought of my blog as my playground. It’s the space where I can feel free to mess around with ideas and concepts, get things clear in my head, and spend time enjoying the process of writing. I’ve not paid much attention to the so-called “experts” who say one “must have a theme, or topic for their blog”. I have written about everything here, from life to productivity, to work, self employment and creativity. I’ve been fortunate that the topics I’ve covered have opened up new opportunities for me to write for great blogs like Thoughtwrestling and Ottawa Tonite. I’m even exploring some new blog writing opportunities now (to be announced soon!). It’s time for a change. As many of you know, I’ve been a teacher in some capacity for much of my 20 year career. It all began back at the cable station, when part of my job as a Producer was to run training workshops for the station’s volunteers in such things as camera, lighting, audio, directing and editing. After I went back to school in ’97, I started work at a training company. I helped to design one of the first Web Design certificate programs offered at Algonquin College, and worked as a program coordinator and course designer for corporate training outside the college as well. During my high-tech hayday, I designed training and awareness programs and wrote help documentation. I spent some time traveling across the United States teaching software at corporations. Then, about 3 years ago, I was hired part time to work for Algonquin college, where I currently teach video production and Web Media, and am designing an online course in Digital Communication. The best part is…I absolutely adore teaching. Some of the most fun I have is creating learning environments for my students – interesting ways for them to get their hands dirty with new ideas. And the best moment…the BEST moment…is that moment when you see the lightbulb go off over a student’s head. The moment they really GET what you’re teaching them, and they are inspired to move forward with their new knowledge and make things happen. It’s just about one of the most rewarding things there is. I’m changing things up here on Suzemuse, because I want to talk more about teaching, and training, and education, and how technology plays into all of it. How our experience as both teachers AND students is changing. How emerging technologies are opening up new ways to learn and experience and explore things. Digital technologies such as social media are rapidly changing the landscape of education. Many teachers and educational institutions are facing big challenges with trying to keep up. Students are demanding more interactivity in their learning environments all the time. The tools are there, and ripe for use inside and outside the classroom, but as educators, we need to figure out the most effective ways to use them. One of the ways I want to do this is by opening up a space where we can all talk – students, educators, administrators, corporate trainers – about ideas, best practices, successes, and failures. So, starting today, Suzemuse is transforming. I am going to shift the focus of this blog to talking about education and emerging technologies, and I hope to start some interesting conversations around the shifting landscape and the future of education. I’m going to engage with other educators and hope to provide interviews, guest posts, and maybe even a podcast down the road. This is where I want to be right now. It’s an extremely exciting time and I’m looking forward to exploring this with you. Thank you for your attention and time and contribution here the past three years. Here’s to next steps! xo Suze [photo credit: Matt Packer on Flickr]