I had a harder time than I expected completing the technology activities I've done so far for this week. The problem wasn't so much the new tools -- I'm used to a learning curve and having patience with myself figuring out something new. The problem was my materials for the F2F course I planned to use were so oriented toward an in-person classroom, many of them needed to be completely redone before they were appropriate for a screencast format. This was funny because the activities in my class are fairly easy to reproduce online -- I often do something like review the main points, bring up a few examples and ask students to discuss. This would lend itself well to a brief screencast or two and then one or two discussion boards. But since the questions for discussion and interaction were so integrated in my presentation, I needed to look at several lessons before I found one that would work. Maybe I would be wise to think of these tasks as more discrete F2F as well...
I also realized, as I returned to and referenced material from class, that I don't know how to "keep my notes" in an online class in the way I do for a F2F course. How do we encourage students to keep records of their thoughts and work that will help them to study and might come in handy for future reference? I'm inclined to suggest that paper-pencil notetaking is still a valuable task for online work, and a folder of resources wouldn't be inappropriate, but perhaps I lack imagination.
I'll also mention my increased awareness of questions of time when creating these products. I find myself hesitating when I try lecturing via screencast or podcast to disclose some stories I might tell in a classroom, because the audience is so uncertain, and I want to make something I can re-use years down the line. This means my attempts at timeliness might be more appropriate in other formats, unless I want to commit to making new audio resources regularly. I also wonder about the practicality of doing too much work in an audio format when I might have to create transcripts for accessibility, which sounds like a lot of work! Maybe better to go from a typed manuscript to a podcast? I see the benefits and drawbacks of each direction.
I normally tell my online students that they would be wise to compose written responses in their word processor and keep a copy, then copy and paste into the discussion or blog. Of course a problem with this is that they don't have the insight of all the other students or responses of the instructor...and you can't really encourage them to copy all the comments since privacy rights could be violated.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of starting with a script and then producing a podcast or video. With the script you can then easily do close captioning right from YouTube. While I think it's a good idea to have the text alternative to video and audio media, if you don't have students who need this, then it's not necessary.
As far as note-taking and that sort of thing goes, when people raise this issue about research, I tell them to do whatever works best for them. I printed a good deal of (the instructor-supplied) stuff for my online classes so I could have it on paper and write on it. That said, there's a lot to be said for the solely electronic route, too--like always having your shopping list with you (so long as you have your phone!). A lot is in flux right now in terms of the way people prefer to take notes and otherwise process information; some of the preferences run along generational lines, as you'd expect, but some also have found through trial and error that one method works better than another for them. Since we want them to be focusing on learning and not on the method of note-taking, stating up front that they can use whatever methods allow them to focus on the material is probably a good idea. (Which is why I get annoyed when reading about instructors who forbid the use of laptops in class... but that's obviously not at issue here! :-) )
ReplyDeleteI also had a hard time figuring out what to produce for the various tools this week. The class I am going to use is a hybrid class so I ended up using the tools to go over assignments. You made me realize I need to push myself a little further so I can get the most out of this class! I appreciated your reflections, and anticipate experiencing similar challenges as I dive further in.
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