Give a daily greeting and offer some inspiring motivators to start with and indicate the objective that we need to reenforce for the week. I would also use all sorts of media from utube, blogs, links, radio points and new sources. The more media input from all sorts of outlet the better chances I have of keeping gym students interested. I would also encourage them to post a few links that they feel would add vault to the subject and topics.
Gemma ,
Look at padlet.com as a way to bring some of your "stuff" together on a digital wall. I am using it now as a way for students to post abot current events.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
THANK YOU! I actually signed up thru FB. Its seems like fun so I'll try it.
I will assign to my students a multi-media presentation of their final research paper. They will be able to choose between many options: video, audio, PPT, webpage, blog or wiki page. I will grade on how well they were able to summarize their work and present it to the audience in the class.
Sabahudin,
I think that is a great idea. You may want them to present a "proposal" regarding their multi-media presentation and determine why they are using it.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have clear guidelines and expectations for the use of the technology. At least once a week or twice a week I post to the discussion topics related to that week's content. I have posted short videos, links to other sites, etc. I require that students respond to the video, etc. I also let students pose new questions and respond to each other. They could also insert their own videos or links to support their responses. Most importantly, since most students will have access to mobile devices that can run the Facebook application for Android or iPhone, or at the very least a computer with internet, students could engage at all times in the discussion by posting their own responses and responses to their peers.
In my expectations for the students I would provide clear guidelines of what is expected. These would include the minimum number of posts, the quality required for a post to be counted, the expectations for how appropriate the post is and for student etiquette.
Willie ,
You are a VERY sophisticated user and facilitator and thank you for your sharing. It is so important that students understand how to you the technology and what is expected of them.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Thomas,
That is great. Have you thought providing example of you expectations of both good and bad? That might provide students guidance.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
This is a relatively new aspect for me, both online teaching and using all the "social" media outlets; however, I really like trying new things, especially with the change in society [students] and media seeming to be the primary means of communication or the appearance of the culture leaning towards social media and the devices in-which they are viewed/communicated on. Using a Rubric, ensuring the guidelines are understood, as well as the outcomes, and learning objectives are achieved, would be a fun session. This way we could see what the student themselves could discover (which could teach the instructor something about a new media outlet :). One key factor is complete immersion in the media hosting and testing the reliability and validity of the content to ensure it matches what you are teaching.
Michael
Michael,
What a great post. You make a great point, you don't want this to be busy work, it should match your outcomes. You also will have to explain to students the expectations for the tool.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
When conducting on-line courses, I establish clear learning outcomes and objectives. The rubrics include the number of words, grammar, and content expectations. I also provide examples of good and bad examples for discussions, essays, and papers. With this in mind, I ask them to review a video, a class, or an article then respond using the above guidelines. Based on the rubrics, I assess each student’s responses
It is important to be involved and for the activities to serve a purpose. It is for classroom education, peer interaction, or discussion? There are some schools that do not allow the use of social media, for example, cannot use tweets or facebook as classroom resources. It sometimes violates the code of conduct interaction with students outside of the classroom.
A rubric to incorporate social media would help identify the use and instructor involvement, by posting questions or information, is important in keeping the students engaged.
In my classes there have been opportunities as well as assignments which require students to access sites outside of the class. They have accessed hosted content for some lab assignments, the then have had to work through projects that allow them to incorporate social media in their presentations. They are made aware of the scope of their projects and the vast majority of the time it's been a great success (plus they use those sources regularly; or so it seems...).
To begin, there would have to be a clear understanding of what is expected from each student. You always have different levels of knowledge from the students, so you need to identify a low level expectation that any student will be able to comprehend. Once that expectation is laid out, you would need to assure the communication between students as well as the instructor is as open as possible.
