This Wasn't on the Syllabus

Well, here we are, at the end of EME6414. It’s hard to believe that another six weeks have gone by. While I could talk about the incredible resources and the amount of practical knowledge I’m able to use on a daily basis, I think I’ll use this last blog for this course to talk about something that wasn’t on the syllabus, or in the readings, or mentioned in any of the videos – a personal experience that I could never have foreseen.

I expected interactions, but I didn’t expect a network of support. The relationships we’ve built have formed so organically. Through our experiences, we’ve found our very own communities within the class, and each interaction seems to be one of support and encouragement. Although our focus has always been on the course material, we’ve each been afforded opportunities to make the experiences personal and relatable. With every blog, every tweet, every VoiceThread, we’ve gotten to know each other a little better.

I think that’s what has been so powerful about this course. We’ve been studying how people connect, and in the process, we’ve connected with each other. We’ve joked several times about how this experience has been very meta, and that is the most perfect way to describe everything about it. I know we don’t have to write any more blogs, and I know today is the last day of the course, but it won’t be for me. This blog, these connections, those tools, all of them will continue to be a part of my life, and for that, I thank all of you.

To the future!

With gratitude and admiration,

Melissa

Social Networking & Faculty: A Plan to Build More PLNs

Now that we’ve come the last day of the course, I’ve been thinking a lot about the approaches I am going to take to implement some of the great ideas we’ve shared. Since I work directly with faculty, the process is a little different than if I were building a course. In some ways, I think the students would be much more accepting of the use of these tools, but I look forward to forming a network of faculty who are interested in ways to incorporate more Web 2.0 into their classes.  

In a few weeks, we’ll be opening up a faculty development course on education technology. The course is an elective and tends to be one of the most popular. Since those faculty are actively choosing to learn more about ed tech, I’ll be able to show them several of the tools over the eight-week course. Many of them, I believe, will be most interested in blogging, maybe Twitter, and some of the curation resources.

One of the approaches I am going to take will shift the focus onto the faculty. I’ve built in an activity that asks them to implement one of these Web 2.0 tools (or one of their choosing) and reflect on the process. This idea is a modification of my produsage project, which I will also be launching as a collaborative learning course, and I think it will work well with ed tech participants.

Another way I plan to leverage some of these tools is with our “Tips” plan that we’ve been developing. Working alongside my team, we will be sharing “Teaching with Tech Tips” that will be disseminated to our faculty. The idea came out of our need to promote some of the resources that are available, but underused, by faculty. By incorporating much of the work I’ve done in this class, I’ll be able to create mini-sessions on what a tool is and how it can be effectively incorporated into classes, from both a technology and teaching perspective.  

We’ll undoubtedly have early adopters and faculty who are already using Web 2.0 on a regular basis, so I plan to rely on their knowledge and enthusiasm as well. Much like Web 2.0, faculty development works best when you have supporters who are willing to share their experiences with those who are in their PLNs.

I’m tremendously excited about the potential to incorporate so many of the things we’ve learned in this class into bite-sized sessions for the faculty. And just maybe, I can even collect some data on how they are being used. J

What a Difference a Decade Makes: Privacy, Digital Footprints, & Education

The very first class I taught at the university level was ENC 1101, almost 10 years ago to the day. While the Department granted a great deal of academic freedom to its instructors, there were three major writing assignments that every 1101 student was expected to complete. I don't remember the details of two of the assignments, most likely a personal narrative and descriptive essay, but the details of one assignment have never left me. It was a light research paper, in a compare/contrast format, about the benefits and complications of social media. Looking back, I'm not sure if we were ahead of our time or way too late. 

As my wide-eyed, nervous freshman sat staring back at their equally wide-eyed, nervous professor, I asked them to work in small groups to think about the ways social media was changing communication. Being a novice instructor, I wasn't exactly sure how to frame the discussion in an academic context, so we focused mostly on how people used language (on Myspace, which was the main form of social media at the time) and the benefits of staying in touch with people you wouldn't otherwise see. I relied pretty heavily on my own experiences. I wasn't quite 30 yet, so the people in my age group were using social media to find high school and college friends that had long since disappeared from our Nokias and Blackberries. 

Nearly every paper I got from that project was exactly the same. I read over and over again about how powerful it was to have a personal digital space and about how scary it was to actually live in there. They cited cyber bullying and predators as contrasting points to family reunions and the ability to be "friends" with celebrities. And while many of these points are similar to ones we could raise today, the one thing no one talked about was privacy. 

As I finished this week's readings on privacy, and thought back to our conversations from the data analytics class, I couldn't get that first set of students out of my head. That project didn't show up on the syllabus after that school year, but I think its objectives were noble and not so far removed from many of the points raised in the readings. While we may not know everything about privacy, I do think we, as educators, have a responsibility to learn as much as we can. And I want students (and faculty) to consider the ramifications of their own digital footprints, yet I recognize how important collecting some of that data can be. 

In fact, I've just gotten off of a planning call for an upcoming faculty development workshop. In that workshop, we're going to show faculty how to collect data from the LMS to measure engagement rates and, hopefully, improve the academic success of their students through a very structured approach. Much like the 1101 project, we are doing this with the purest intention - we want to be able to help students be successful - but doing that involves looking into their habits and patterns. This is by no means new or different that what other institutions are doing, but it does put us in an interesting place when we look at privacy. In education,  I still think the benefits of collecting data outweigh the complications, but would I feel differently about it if it were a company, rather than an institution, doing it?

As we continue to navigate the complicated world of privacy, I think the key is transparency with our students. But it's much more about helping them understand the permanency and reach of their online lives than it is to create fear or distrust, which can sometimes be the case when we talk about privacy. If I had it to do all over again, I don't think I'd change too much about that social media project from a decade ago, but I do have some ideas about how different my role would be. 

In the Palm of Your Hands: Considering the Role of Mobile Learning

Last week, I promised I'd share a little about the conference I attended in Las Vegas, and as we find ourselves planted in the final week of the course, I thought now would be a perfect time. The conference, Fusion, was hosted by D2L, a Canadian-based learning management system provider whose history, mission statement, and philosophies rival that of a Silicon Valley company much more than a standard LMS organization. The university I work for uses D2L, and the more I build in it, the more I like it. Their goals are lofty, and they seem to spare no expense when it comes to research & development and training, and that alone is enough to make me want to support them. Considering they also rented out Omnia nightclub for us in Vegas, they also know how to throw one heck of a party.

I was fortunate enough to be a participant on two panels, and presenting at conferences is one of my favorite ways to build my network. I am also one of those people who refuses to miss a breakout session. Ok, I may have skipped one this time - I mean, when a company rents a club, you go. At every conference, a theme emerges, something that didn't necessarily take center stage, but seems to be dominating the breakout sessions and the coffee chats. At Fusion, it was mobile learning. Everyone, including my team, was talking about the necessity of placing learning, quite literally, in the palms of our hands. 

Now, at this point, I feel like I should admit something. I love innovation, and once I'm given an idea, I can easily adopt a clear vision and make it come to life. I like to think creatively, and leading brainstorming sessions is something I consider a strength. However, I have absolutely no ability to predict, with any level of success, what the next big "thing" will be. Remember when texting was first made available? Yeah, I thought, no one will ever use this. Kindles? Who wants to read on a screen? So, needless to say, I'm not sure what the future or our hands will hold when it comes to mobile learning. 

I see a lot of potential for AR and learning, and much of AR happens now with aid of our mobile devices. And when we consider the incredible possibilities of feedback and participation with Web 2.0, our mobile devices seem to be personalized learning hubs. I'd even argue that they are already where we do most of our informal learning.

At the conference, one of the big reveals was the new mobile platform that D2L has created, and it is beautiful. As far as design theory and UX, they've done everything right. But I'm still unsure as to what role mobile learning will have in the big picture of higher ed, or formal learning in general. What type of learning will take place? Will it still be supplemental? When we look at the 21st Century learner, where do we place mobile learning?  

Produsage: Cycle of Collaboration

After watching Professor Dennen's presentation on our Produsage assignment, I was able to restructure my plan in a way that I am very excited to share. I'm going to be a little meta here and design a collaborative professional development course on collaborative learning! There was an article on Inside Higher Ed. a few months back titled, Even Professors Hate Group Work, that keeps making its rounds on my LinkedIn and Facebook. The article is open and realistic, and it made me more empathetic to several viewpoints. Actually, if I had to sum up my entire professional career into one goal, it would be to see genuine and continuous cross-disciplinary collaboration from both faculty and students. As a faculty member, I once combined my English Comp class with a Biology course to practice descriptive writing. As an administrator, I spent an entire academic year working with professors from different programs to get them to form teaching squares and recognize core competencies between fields. And most recently, I've been focused on working with faculty and instructional designers to help them consider ways to build more collaborative assignments (other than just discussion boards) into their courses. 

The studies prove over and over again that collaboration can be a very effective method of improving student learning outcomes and retention in online classes. And while I understood the theory behind this and could easily throw out suggestions, I never really understood just how collaborative an online class could be until I was a student in this one. It's as though this class gave me an outline of exactly what I needed to know to show faculty just how engaged and active students can be in an online class. So, needless to say, I've chosen to design a course that centers on collaboration and, with your feedback, can be shared with faculty this fall. The course will be optional and can count towards professional development hours.

• Plan
• Build the course using a free Canvas account. I've done this before for interviews and sample course building because it avoids FERPA and access problems with using LMSs associated with institutions. However, once this is done, I'll transfer the most effective materials to D2L, our LMS. 
• Ideas and Needs
• Some scholarly readings to provide discussion of Web 2.0 and education: faculty will be expected to read these, and I will use either discussion forums or blogs for interaction. (Don't wince yet, that's only a tiny part of it!)
• Curation tool: faculty will be expected to spend a certain amount of time curating their own resources for ideas, strategies, and tools that can be used for collaboration in online classes.
• Presentation methods (asynchronous): so that faculty can share their findings with each other.
• Journal: There will be a reflective element to this course. Once faculty have selected certain tools to try with their students, the experience should be shared with their colleagues. 
• Social network: For this project, I will build in the use of Twitter, but for the one I will present, I might use Social, our University's social media space.
• Problem-based opening: To get faculty more engaged, I'll use a problem-based learning strategy to get them to consider all the ways in which collaboration can be used to increase student engagement.
• A listing method, perhaps using a wiki??, that asks faculty to make the pros and cons lists as they progress through the course.

Ohhh! I'm so excited to build this. In the past, I've always thought my collaboration courses were a bit sad in that, well, they didn't have much collaboration in them. I'd based them mostly on readings and education theories that support the benefits of collaboration. Eeeek. That sounds awful, doesn't it? 

So what do you think? Is there anything I'm missing or not considering? Once the course is built, I'll tweet the link to everyone to join! Thank you, in advance, for the feedback!

Writing Tools: Pirates, Mediums, and Sad Faces

Ye, be warned! No, no, not that kind of pirates, mediums, and sad faces. This blog is all about writing tools. 

When I read over this week’s suggested tools, I’ll admit I had never heard of most of them, but I was instantly drawn to the Writing Tools section, especially PiratePad and Medium.

For PiratePad, I see how it could be valuable, but I’d limit that value to those who don’t have access to other, arguably better, tools like Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, Microsoft OneDrive/Skype or many of the other collaborative writing environments. My main reason for supporting these other tools over PiratePad is mostly because there are other built-in features that accompany the wiki-like environment. In education, I’d suggest that the other options are easier to use and are able to handle logistical concerns that PiratePad just can’t manage. 

Now, with all that being said, PiratePad is free and offers collaboration and wiki opportunities to those who might not otherwise have access. Since we’re using Wikispaces, I chose not to review it here, but that is also a free option that I think is superior to PiratePad. Whenever faculty I work with can’t decide if they want to use a new tool, I’ll often have them use a rubric to score the overall value and UX. I looked at the rubric as I explored on PiratePad, and it just didn’t score as high as Wikispaces or any of the other similar tools I’ve used. Again, I think it’s a great option for those who are beginning to explore collaboration and wiki-writing, and it’s easy to use, just wouldn’t by my first choice.

Screenshot of PiratePad in Use

Screenshot of Medium Homepage

Now, Medium, however is something I’ve already decided will be one of my go-to sites. I love that it is built around blogging, but that it’s taken it a step further and categorized and connected you to others who are writing on topics in which you are interested. I set up my account in less than a minute, and I’ve already found myself liking several of the stories that were recommended to me based on my selected topic areas. It, in many ways, combines writing and social media in a really beautiful way. 

The layout is clean, the controls are user friendly, and the free membership seems solid. Overall, after only a few days of use, I haven’t had any problems with it and enjoy the ability to connect with writers who share similar interests. While my excitement for this tool stems mostly from personal interest, I can see how this could be incorporated into education as well. This week’s tools were some of my favorite to explore because many of them were new to me and helped me consider other options to connect and learn.

On a somewhat separate note, after adding to the class wiki, I started thinking about microblogging. I searched several sites that listed microblogging tools, but of over 10, only two or three were still active. The others look like they shutdown sometime between 2010 and 2015. It made me so curious about why all those tools didn’t make it. Twitter is always considered a microblogging tool, but I wonder why those tools that labeled microblogging more like paragraph-length submissions didn’t fare so well. I’m sure there are many reasons why Web 2.0 tools don’t make it, but it seemed so strange that almost every microblogging tool I looked for had the same sad face and "no longer exists" message when visiting their former websites. 

The Power of Presence: Using Mini-sessions to Disconnect

I’m sitting at long wooden table that has been strategically placed in front of massive floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the Albion mountain range in Utah. The lodge has been built with deliberately natural details; wood and greenery fill the otherwise airy space. At its heart, it’s a ski lodge and spa, but during the summer months, it is home to what seems like back-to-back conferences. The wood-lined meeting rooms are filled with logo-heavy banners, branded swag, and people with a shared interest, mostly from academia or the corporate world. I glance up and see another group of people with plastic name tags walk by. Other than the branded everythings and fonts on the badges, this setting is completely different from the education technology conference I’ve just come from in Las Vegas.

But despite the change in scenery, and my inability to get used to breathing at this altitude, there is something that is remarkably similar about the two conferences. We’re all connected. And while I mean that in the philosophical – we all share a common purpose – I mean it in the literal sense, too. On all of those coffee mugs and portfolios and mouse pads and slightly-off-looking USBs, #s, @s, and QR codes make their presence known. There are contests for tweeting about the most sessions, there are hidden icons that are unlocked when the codes are scanned, and within four days, my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts have seen spikes that would surely fall out far out of the normal ranges. 

All of these things led me to think about our class, and the blogs that have been written on the importance of disconnecting and how and when we disconnect. I think most of us tend to think about disconnecting when we are traveling, but oddly enough, because I travel mostly for work, that’s not the case with me. Being in Vegas and the mountains of Utah seems like the perfect time to disconnect, but I’ve been more connected these past six days than I ever am when I’m at home. Even when we took a few hours to play in the woods (or the casinos), I found myself posting live videos and using the conference and class hashtags to let others know what we were doing when we weren’t sitting in keynote addresses and breakout sessions. My professional network grows so much at these events, but I still want to stay connected to those who can’t be with me.  

Yet I know how important it is to disconnect and take a break for more than a day or so. Although this summer hasn’t afforded me too many opportunities to do that, I think I’ve found ways to take mini-breaks without even realizing that’s what I was doing. I guess when we look at digital detoxing, mine tends to happen on those unexpected rainy Mondays when I am bathing the dogs, or on Saturdays and Sundays when I’m focused on planting new flowers in the backyard or organizing the towels and sheets in the hall closet. 

For me, right now, disconnecting means quiet times when I feel like I can get back in touch with those things that fall aside when we’re so caught up in our day-to-day routines. It means being present and giving my absolute attention to the things that are right in front of me, whether that be a new lavender bush or my squirmy little pugs. And although that may only be for an afternoon or a weekend, I think that those mini disconnect sessions can be exactly what we need when we find ourselves feeling overwhelmed with technology.