Fall iTeach Follow-up, 13 November
Last night six iTeach participants from this past year got together on Elive and shared with us what they had been working on since we had seen them last. I just have to say right up front that there was so much interesting work being done that I almost can’t wait to hear more.
We’ve tried to capture the majority of what was shared below so that others can explore these efforts as well. If I’ve left anything out please feel free to include them in the comments.
Participants
Chip McMillan
Chip is currently persuading administrators that Second Life can be a new platform for delivery of a Masters in Education (Science) program. He shared some background about the cooperation that is planned with NOAA on creating a Virtual Alaska in Second Life. The Virtual Alaska are in Second Life would include a Virtual Alaska Interior, Virtual Tongass National Forest, and Virtual Aleutian Island. He also showed how NOAA has taken their “Real Life” Science-on-a-sphere, concept and made it possible in Second Life.
He would like to see these locations in SL host information trails with kiosks containing science content, a great lesson, multimedia, a project, and/or misconceptions about science.
NOAA would like to build Virtual Alaska resources on the Teen Grid but the details are still being worked out.
Sine suggested that there might be EPSCoR funding for this project.
More about what Chip is doing here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/11/14/chip-mcmillan/
Cheryl Johnson
Cheryl made a wiki available in her class this fall as a place to work on an assignment where students, in the past, had used a discussion board. She didn’t like the results she was seeing with the discussion board assignment, so she tried to re-imagine the course using a wiki.
Students wrote about technology tools used in education, and because of the nature of a wiki, were also able to collaborate on each other’s work.
(Question) Did you feel the wiki worked better?
(Cheryl) It was definitely a different experience. Many of the students normally struggle with the APA format, which I require them to write in, but the students were able to assist each other in getting the format correct. (Peer editing)
Cheryl is also using multiple home site views (UAS feature)in her online class space and reconfigured the layout so it is new easier to navigate.
(Comment) I really like the new class layout and think it looks very organized. Are you willing to share how you did this? (Cheryl has posted the code for her sidebar in the UAS tech forum, and supplied the code which has been included below.)
<table width="100%" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>{title}{views}{-profile}</td>
<td>{-announcements}</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top">{+assignments}</td>
<td width="30%" valign="top">{+commtools} {+resources}</td>
</tr>
</table>
More about what Cheryl has been doing is here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/11/10/cheryl-jp-johnson/
John Mouracade
John normally has his philosophy students write response papers that ended up feeling a bit rigid and found that if he mandated a word limit, the students wouldn’t necessarily write beyond that limit. He decided this semester to have students blog instead and that their writing became more free-form and that they were writing much more. Students seemed to be doing more thought provoking and extensive work.
This is a face-to-face class. Before class John looks through Google Reader to get an overview of what students have been working on. The conversations are then continued from the blogs during class time. John found there was a broad amount of material that could be covered in this way.
A few examples of student blogs:
http://khristyparker.blogspot.com/2008/11/law-as-interpretation-r-dworkin.html
http://tigers-lily.blogspot.com/2008/10/posner-and-pragmatism.html
http://lawsphilosophy.blogspot.com/2008/09/hart.html
(Question) What do you do about students who don’t want their work made public?
(John) There really weren’t any students who had an issue with the public performance. They did have the option to post under a pseudonym.
More about what John is doing here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/11/13/john-mouracade/
Sine Anahita
Sine did a video wiki with students. Face-to-face students were hesitant to talk about race in class and she always felt a bit on edge talking about such a touchy subject in class. The semester the class ended up throwing out the syllabus and working on this wiki. It was an overwhelming success, and as a result attendance is the highest it has ever been.
(Question) How will you use this in the future?
(Sine) The plan is to put together a 50 minute film as a teaching guide. I’ve really been inspired to make the video available for free and open to the public to stimulate discussion about race.
(Question) Is this like digital storytelling?
(Sine) Students share their stories… but students they then analyze the work.
(Comment) It is a new and moving experience for the students
Sine says that she really gained confidence from iTeach which allowed her to move forward with his project. She also says she’s found great inspiration from other sociologists who are blogging.
“What a difference it has made to me because I was feeling very isolated here in Fairbanks.”
Sine’s class blog can be seen here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/10/27/dr-sine-anahita/
More info about what Sine has been working on is here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/10/27/dr-sine-anahita/
Judy Atkinson
Judy’s audio classes were cancelled this semester so she didn’t get a chance to try the things she had been planning. She did say she was getting great ideas from what others shared during the this meeting.
She just started working on ideas for a class (4 credit with lab) that incorporates new strategies for studying for students. The class is still in the beginning stages.
(Suggestion) Blogging to reduce math anxiety – Maybe adding a reflection activity at the end of each lesson to help the students share where they felt they were getting hung up during.
Heidi Brocicous
Lost connection… we hope to hear back from you Heidi! In the meantime, there is more about what she’s been doing here:
http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/iteach/2008/11/14/heidi-brocius/
Wrap Up
Cheryl – I’d love to do something in Second Life and blogging too (it seems blogging is easier to get into)
Chip – Intrigued by the use of video, and would like students to interview elders and post those interviews as video.
Sine – The libraries all have video cameras that you can borrow and the tech guys are very willing to assist. I wrote a grant to get the software and camera I used in this class.
Chip – The Flip video camera has been very impressive for capturing video. It can be finicky in “record” with instant playback out to TV.
Thanks to everyone for participating. We’ll also be posting notes from the session planned for this afternoon if you’d like to see what others are working on.