I think this could be a great tool to use maybe chat with the students or have them chat with others about the lesson.
Robert,
Live chat is an awesome tool for students in a blended as well as fully online environment. It increases the level of immediacy and interactivity instantly!
Dr. Ruth Reynard
I agree. I think that as they start to build autonomy, they will focus more on the task at hand and not other things that can be done later.
Ann Marie,
Freedom of choice and direction does not mean that there cannot be structure. The idea is that the instructional design is flexible enough to accomodate increasing learner autonomy as the process continues...
Dr. Ruth Reynard
I have weekly Live Chats in my courses, and I am generally limited to a WhiteBoard and PowerPoints. Only for one school do I have screen sharing access. Does anyone know of free screen sharing software that I could use for a situation like this?
I teach non-traditional adult learners.
Most have jobs, families and face a day full of life's challenges. Many are recently returning veterans. They struggle with all the inputs and are sometimes distracted at first. Most in the class (like me) were not taught in the internet age and dealing with the technology is a challenge as is the chance to "wander" around the net.
I think part of my job is to ease them into this environment and guide them to the sources of information and inputs that they may not have known existed while staying on point of the subject matter. I find myself learning new methods as I try to share them with the class.
I think the freedom to explore is a good thing as long as it advances the main goal of learning the subject matter.
Ralph Fornari
Ralph,
Success in an online environment takes a lot of self motivation on the part of the learner. As instructors, we can facilitate as much as possible, however, students have to also "kick in" with their own motivation just like in an on ground environment.
Dr. Ruth Reynard
Hi Andre, I agree with your assessment. I typically work in a computer lab when on campus where students have access to Internet and I can attest that a majority of the students will have Facebook or YouTube or other social media sites up. When I first started teaching early 2000 we had technology that allowed the instructor station to see what the student stations had on the screen. That prevented some of what you are talking about, we also had the ability to lock the stations so if I was lecturing or doing a demonstration I could lock the student workstations so they couldn't do anything. It is funny that 15 years ago that technology was around when fewer social media sites were available and today on my campus we have 4 computer labs and we don't have any software to manage the systems.
Dr. Reynard when your class requires use of the computer for class, for instance a Photoshop class without technology to prevent access to the Internet students venture away to social media. In my experience even with a well laid out lesson plan that is full of content for every minute of the class time you will still have students that decide checking the status update on Facebook is more important than what is going on in class. One way I limit that in my class is to be up and walking around during lecture and lab time. It also provides me an opportunity to see if students are having problems with the assignment and give one on one instruction if needed. If they know I'm going to be coming around and talking to them it may deter some from blatantly surfing the web during class.
Justice,
Remember that focus is an ongoing challenge for all students and being able to stay focused takes time and determination. It is a great challenge for some students who have processing challenges. It was always a challenge, however, for students ...and teachers have always been trying to find ways to address this with or without technology. Trust me, even in a class room where there is no technology being used and every student is looking right at the teacher, at least 30% if not more, are thinking about what they need to do as soon as class is out :)
Dr. Ruth Reynard
