Eileen,
You might try padlet.com. It works like Pinterest.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I teach Math and Pharmacology to Medical Assisting students at a career college. I often integrate and use material from Khan Academy, You-Tube and TED into my lesson plans.
Generally, I will use these media to find information that I can use to introduce a topic, reinforce something that I have taught, or to "demonstrate" ideas, concepts, etc. I find that they are often are very useful to provide a "big picture" overview. As always, it is important to choose a "reputable and accurate" information source when it comes to material.
I have used Khan Academy as a teaching tool for mathematics (College Prep Math and Algebra. While I find Khan provides excellent clips to present "big pictures", I also will choose "pinpoint segments" that focus on a particular aspect of math that I want students to "zero-in" on.
I find Khan segments are usually fairly short so it's easy to "insert" them into my lesson and have students watch them. Viewing Khan's presentation also reinforces "areas" that I want/need to do so with.
Khan clips, also give the students a chance to hear how other instructors "explain" content and provides them with a "tutoring" source should they need it. For example, students who may be weak in absolute values, can review them when they come across an absolute value in an equation.
In Pharmacology, I do a similar type of thing. For instance, before I start a section on anticonvulsants and antiepileptics, I may search out a clip that will "teach" them about the disease state and various seizure types. I have found TED and You-Tube to be excellent for this type of instruction.
I also find that viewing the sites to find inclusion material for a "lesson" often allows me to integrate some of the latest scientific findings that are pertinent to my topic. So in some respects, it also helps keep me current.
As a final benefit, I have also come across different approaches to teaching some content that I have "adopted" in my own teaching methods.
Ernest,
What a great idea. How interact your course sounds. This is a great way to utilize experts in your course.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
At one of the schools that I teach on-line, for our *live* discussions, we use an Adobe program--Acrobat Connect-- and the most recent version (9.1) is super easy to use, for both the students and the instructor.
Mark,
I love the live discussions; if you can get students to participate. Sometimes the asynchronous work better to engage students.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Because I teach math both on-ground and on-line, I have found it difficult to use many of the techniques and sites that we have been discussing in the course so far. They just don't seem to apply to math courses very well???
YouTube and KhanAcademy are the sites I rely on most of the time. My on-line courses are hosted through Moodle. I post links to the videos located on each of the two sites.
To help students raise their grades, I will allow them to retake up to two of the on-line quizzes IF and only if they find a YouTube video, watch it, and post a summary of the video and tell me and the class what they learned that they didn't understand before. I then reset the quiz. I won't say it is a perfect exercise, but the quiz grades are generally better the second time around.
I also use Jing to make my own short videos. I have made PowerPoint presentations from the SmartBoard and have done a voice-over. I tried this for the first time this quarter. Student response has been positive.
I am grateful to see people posting all these sites that I never heard of. I will check them out to see if I can expand what I am doing.
Math instructors out there----what other suggestions do you have about getting interactive learning going? I must admit, I find that a big challenge.
Janis,
I think you make such a great point. You can overwhelm students with the "extra" stuff. I think you have a great idea having them to find their own learning tools. That is how many of them will learn in the future whether they realize it or not. I think you are on the right track.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Youtube Edu has some great resources and creative videos for sharing in the education process. I am looking forward to exploring it more.
I did not know about photovoice either. Photovoice is actually a charity based effort to dignify and encourage marginalized groups by simply sharing their stories via photos. How wonderful!
Thomas,
I am going to explore Photovoice. This is the reason I love working in this area. We learn so much.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Medical Coding is particularly challenging for students to grasp the learning objectives in an online course. Even though each unit covers a specific topic along with a discussion board students are still challenged in learning the basic coding concepts. Frustrating as this has been in the past, I began seeking outside references such as youtube video clips that could help the students with the learning objectives. Fortunately, I was able to locate a series of videos that covered each coding topic - what a blessing! I began to incorporate these videos into the weekly discussion boards and low and behold - the students really like using these videos to better grasp the concepts. From this point forward, I will always use this type of media as they are so beneficial to the students.
How could I teach for so long a period a time without the use of this media?
Overwhelmed by the results, I am now creating my own library for the coding students.
Donna,
Great strategy. Why recreate the wheel? Many of the LMS platforms will allow you to integrate Youtube clips within so you can track those using (or not using it). This makes your courses so much richer without adding to your workload.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I've heard amazing things about Evernote for organization, this would be interesting to use as a classroom tool. Thanks for the idea!
Michelle,
There are so many great sites. Also look at padlet.com
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Within all of my time in education and the workforce I will say that I have benefited most from the Khan Academy and Dropbox. Both are a huge resource for information as well as sharing. Within my company we have a huge file sharing system similar to dropbox, and I couldn't live without it.
With graduate school, as well as with my students dropbox has been a valuable tool as well.
Martin,
LOVE DROPBOX! It is also a great tool to use professionally also. Many find LMS to be limiting so the Dropbox works. I find the Khan Academy to be a fabulous resource to enhance and enrich a course. I also like TED.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think that Youtube and the educational youtube would be considered great media hosting sites. I love the educational youtube which has grammar videos and lessons made by teachers.
lisa,
Aren't they great? You can have students post their work through these hosting sites. The majority have cameras in their phone.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
As an instructor for both video gaming and animation, I constantly use videos to show my students some of the latest content out there. I can even show them a lot of old classic animations available on YouTube, which they love.
Michael,
That is great. You can really demonstrate technique and skill through the medium.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Kelly-
I had no idea there were so many media hosting sites that were centered around the student accessible to me, as the educator. I will definitely take advantage of them, especially You Tube Edu, SchoolTube and iTunesU.
This information will help with engagement and supplementing the information/course.
Leti
