Something I plan to try..............

Wiggi

Identified as an easier way to work in groups

Collaboration w/businesses, Agencies and Guest Lecturers

Teaching Back with Prezi

This was something I wanted to try after looking at several other of my colleague's presentations. This presentation was developed for the sole purpose and use in a technology course.

My Prezi is about "What is a MOOC?", including facts discussing the benefits of MOOC's

MOOCs on Prezi

Click above to watch my video:

I intend to work further with this tool, looking forward to developing and enhancing my teaching skills.

Things An Instructor Should Know about Teaching/Learning

1. First and foremost, be open to new and familiar things. You will never know what you can do unless you are willing to try. Also, you can’t expect learners to do something you are not wiling to do yourself; we lead and learn by example!!!
2. Really, know the course management system in which your institution operates, technical capabilities and limitations (server size, CMS size allowed) and who can help you when needed.
3. Organization is the key (Diigo)
4. Put in the time and effort to make your course awesome, your hard work will reflect in your students.
5. Diversity, in education, learning and learner; provide choices and options for learners in their assignments.
6. Keep the learner in mind when making technology choices. Will the learner be able to use this with his/her internet connection, software, and computer?
7. Learn about fair use laws, what can be used and what laws are applied to the use and distribution of materials in classes. These are good links to get started: http://www.edu/library/copy.shtml ,Stanford University's Fair Use Resources Page, http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html
8. Be familiar with the places to look for ready made content (Youtube, Google video, CNN video, Discovery channel video, Youtube Edu, etc...)
9. Add polling and or/ texting in your course, learn how to make it fit.
10. Know how to create quizzes and survey, use them in your course they are invaluable feedback and assessment tools. Assessing your courses regularly. Asking for student feedback/input on if the course is meeting the goals/objectives set, both learner and course. (Survey Monkey,Poll Everywhere, Zoomerang, SurveyGizmo)
11. Join social networks (join/meet the learners where they are). While I am not totally convenience this social tool will be useful in the classroom as a teaching tool, it is still interesting to know how the next generations of learners are communicating and relating to each other outside of the classroom. (Facebook, Likedln)
12. Provide feedback to your learners. You can also make it more personable from time to time (Audacity).
13. Experiment with tools to make your own content (Prezi, Jing)
14. Join a group that wants to develop technology in educational setting. It is amazing how many great ideas that are shared; it’s been proven your course can be much better as a result.
15. Think about virtual online office hours (Elluminate, Skype , Oovoo) . In addition, guest speakers can be invited utilizing such tools.
16. Always think about the technology and how to incorporate it in your course but don’t force it, make sure it serves a valuable purpose.
17. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance from other online instructors or follow bloggers with your same interest in education, here’s another place of support and mentoring. Blogs can also be an excellent addition to the classroom! (blogger, EduBlog, Joomla)
18. Investigate the technology choices; there are many out there that are FREE!!!
19. Always have a back up plan, including alternative: websites, applications, storage systems. (iCloud, MOOC’s)
20. Seek out training/professional development opportunities related to online education–and encourage your institution to offer them!
21. Consider your own time – will you be able to devote the necessary time to an online course (maintaining/updating materials, responding/connecting to learners, etc.)?
22. Establish and maintain a clear syllabus with clear policies and expectations – both for your learners and yourself!
23. Don’t be afraid; be willing to try new things!!!!!!!!!!

24. Evaluate what worked well and what needs to be improved on It’s not appropriate to teach the way we were taught. Change is inevitable!!!

Creating Surveys

I had decided to use the other survey Zoomerang because my colleague had already submitted a survey utilizing SurveyMonkey. However, Zoomerang & SurveyMonkey has merged. Either way I had never utilized either to create a survey. Currently, our institution utilizes Blackboard and this tool offers options for creating tests, quizzes and surveys. I was going to attempt creating a course evaluation utilizing the survey tool in Blackboard, so if all doesn’t go well I am still able to present my students with a course survey via Zoomerang & SurveyMonkey. I found this tool to be rather simple and useful. I like the sample questions are presented or you can make develop your own question that yields the appropriate feedback. Utilizing some of the preexisting question, I would say that this exercise took me about 15minutes. The problem I have with tools like these are if we want to utilize them we must come out of pocket. I notice that all of the tools presented allowed for basic plans, just enough to get you hooked. Before I make a decision to purchase I will go back to Blackboard and do some more research and create a survey through this tool to see if it yields the same results as the ones introduced in this module.

You can access my survey created through Zoomerang & SurveyMonkey at the following link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZKJSM6C

Creating Your Own Content

For this specific assignment I choose to create a 7.35 podcast. The podcast is an introduction that outlines the course syllabus; CJ114: Administration of Juvenile Justice.

The podcast can be heard below:

Podcast Powered By Podbean

This audio would be posted in Blackboard and can be used in conjunction with the archived recorded synchronous/Elluminate Blackboard Live session. The audio is designed to reinforce and point out the most significant sections in the syllabus:

1.      instructor contact Information and office hours

2.      the learning objectives and outcomes

3.      the grading

4.      overall expectations of the workload

I’m thinking about using this next semester. I had an opportunity to experience this method prior to this assignment, elluminate Blackboard live session. I have to admit, I rather like this idea, the students can go back and listen to things they may have missed for some reason and the facilitator can spend more time engaged in other matters as it relates to the course. And as one of my colleagues has indicated I rather prefer to work in a manner where I am not on camera, that’s one of the excitements of being on line, no one really can see you and form opinions based on superficial perceptions. Also, I choose this method because I was most confortable; it took me only one try to record, there’s always room for improvement. The hard part was downloading and transferring but I finally got it.  I would like to thank you in advance for your kind words, meaning feedback!!!!

Diigo Toolbar - Annotate, Screenshot, Bookmark

In all honesty I never used any thing of this nature until being introduced to this tool via TT1221. This is a social bookmarking site used to tag and bookmark various web pages. This is a free tool that can be downloaded onto your tool bar, making the bookmarking process very easy.

Checkout some of my tags: http://www.diigo.com/user/angeep20carrie

SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS

Because I currently engage in the use of Elluminate or texting, so I decided to venture and do the Skype option for this activity (which I hadn't used before). As usual my hectic schedule wouldn’t allow me to engage in this activity during a respectable time frame so I choose to Skype with my Brother-in-law who resides overseas, totally different time zone.

In any case, the chat started off very difficult, I was trying to Skype using my iphone. As indicated earlier time is an issue for me, I was at work attempting to conduct this exercise. I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but I am a law enforcement officer and I work from 6p – 3a, the times most of society is just getting home from work, trying to relax, getting their household situated or sleeping. I decided to use my iphone because driving around in a patrol car dose not lends itself to computer access. So any way the call kept dropping, it wasn’t until my brother-in-law realized that I might be in a bad area. He also indicated that this type of communication works best with internet or wifi connection. In addition, some phones though they have the capability they are still limitations, one would have to check with their service provider to ensure their plan supports this product. Once I realize these issues we attempted the call again and were able to connect much easier. This could certainly be a useful tool for simple quick chatting but probably wouldn’t go over very well in a large group setting or in a setting where it is important to attempt to guide users/chatters through an activity.

Technically speaking, there were so many issues, which if used in the education setting the facilitator need to provide very detailed instructions to the users. In addition, the facilitator needs to explain to the users that they should check with their service provider before using this method of communication. The upside is this produce can be used on a smartphone or computer. When utilizing this method I highly recommend a computer connection they are much smoother.

This was definitely a very exciting learning experience; it’s very similar to Facetime or Tango a feature offered by smartphones which allows the users to do very similar functions as Skyping.