During COVID online teaching, it became really apparent that many students think that they have technology skills, but in fact, they have "app" skills. The age of TikTok and Instagram has really impacted students' understanding of the tech skills that are needed. It seems like "tech skills" just get bumped into one big lump and students expect their app skills to transfer, when in fact they do not. It was valuable to read about the inventory of tech skills that we should emphasize with students. I'll definitely check in with them as part of the pre-class work to ensure that they know how to convert .doc to PDFs, etc.
Using a variety of technology is best to help students. STudents need to become familiar with the technonogy to be sucessful.
The tools discussed were very helpful but I found the ideas about learning space more useful. Making sure to include a variety of "spaces" for students to be engaged and active in the class seems useful.
Introduce the course as both an asynchronous and synchronous where discussions and assignments will be required of each. Where it's not just on the students time frame, but synchronous discussions make up a vital role in the course.
A good online instructor needs to identify and consider the technical skills that students need to participate in the course or program, provide "tech tips" and / or some type of technology training for those students that need to enhance their technical skills, along with what types of tools the instructor should use based on the course type - asynchronous or synchronous? Social media based? To be successfull and build a well working, effective CoP, the successful teacher or instructor must strike a successful balance between all of these options and then provide the student support (as needed) to help the whole thing function smoothly in order to create a highly positive and engaging learning experience for all of the students.
Online teachers should provide students with a list of basic technology skills that are required for the class.
SETH SORONNADI
I learned that "Social networking sites can be utilized in online learning to develop student engagement, communication, and collaboration. Many students are familiar with social networking sites and can easily transfer their skills and adapt to the environment quickly. Using social networking sites for learning is a dynamic medium to help students share information and knowledge. Engaging students in real-time, authentic learning provides an opportunity for students to engage in real-world learning in a more participatory environment." And I planned to revisit this again
I learned about the different tools to do asynchronous communication tools. It will take some time for me to learn the different tools and how they best suite the course.
As an online instructor it is important to review the tool, decide if it is essential to communication in your course, and use it effectively.
The discussion boards can create a panel for the instructor to monitor students and the interaction of the students. Multi-media resources will allow digital tools to for student guidance.
I found that an instructor needs to be Familiar with technology, tools, as well as diffent websites that are beneficial for the online learner.
Students need to know how to use the web and websites, but they need to also know how to be effective learners when using them. They will need to also analyze the web content for accurac.
I learned about the wealth of technological tools that are available for online learning. It will be one of my first challenges to navigate through it all to use the right tools in my class.
Setting aside time at the beginning of your course to address technology skills can eliminate frustration throughout the entire course. Often I am guilty of assuming that students are coming into my class with the technology skills that I commonly require. With this information I would add questions regarding technology skills to the student survey/biography assignment at the beginning of the course. This would give an overall picture of what skills students were confident in and what skills would need to be addressed prior to jumping into course content.
With this sudden shift to online due to Covid-19, many students are taking an online course for the first time. Their technology skills are very raw and they require a lot of support to be successful. One challenge is "seeing" what a student is struggling with. I have used Zoom and had them share their screen however I also had a student who could not figure out the share screen option either.
One of the things I will take from this module is the importance of sifting through all the resources and capabilities available for online student learning and choosing the best ones for maximum benefit.
Also, it's crucial to be sure all students have the ability to access the technology required for online success.
There were several different examples of online tools to use to help show tutorials of how the equipment works, such as Blackboard Collaborate, Captivate, Adobe Connect, etc. It would be nice to have a student who is knowledgeable about these tools show the class how they work, maybe a previous student who already took the class. Sometimes students can explain things better to students than the teachers can, and I believe this can only benefit student understanding. As long as students understand how the tools work before the class begins, that works for me.
The initial list of questions to ask students, that is recommended for learning just what technical skills a student possesses, is something I will be implementing indeed. Also, the lack of these skills should not lead to changing the expectations of the course, but rather how I may assist a student to become more technically prepared to be successful in the class. Love the list! It could also be used to evaluate the skills of a potential new hire??
It may seem basic, but it's important to survey students on their technology capabilities from cutting and pasting to what type of operating system they are working on. On a regular basis, I teach students f2f that do not know how to format basic computer programs and it blows my mind. They are geniuses on social media but not in other formats.
It is important to assess student basic technology usage at the beginning of the course.
