Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

Considering the M*A*S*H fan I am, I had to name the last post what I did.  In reality, I'd like to think it isn't really good-bye as much as it is 'see you later'.  I guess that's more of a B.J. approach than a Hawkeye one, but I digress.

There are a few things I want to wrap-up before I go:

• First, the CNG 101 transition is going well.  I've reorganized the assessments and discussions and I hope it makes for a better experience for both my students and me.  
• My opinion to resolving the issue of the great tech divide is to meet on common ground.  As boring as it may be, that means running the majority of your class in D2L and only occasionally going outside.  This will give the low tech student the time to adapt to one thing while learning the material while still making sure the high tech student remains engaged.  Just my 2 cents.
• No, my shy student never really engaged me or the discussions in any meaningful way.  It's one of the disappointments for me this semester, but I don't know what else I could have done.  He did pass the class though.
• I haven't really gone back to Second Life.  Yes, it pops up now and again as something to look at, but I just can't see how to put it into my course.  No, more honestly, I can't see any reason I want it in my class.  I'm pleased others are using it, but it's not going in my tool bucket...yet.
• I do need to add more synchronous activities in my class.   I think I just need to commit to the IM/Chat more.

So, that's about it.  If you want to find me, my email address is nate.wadman@ppcc.edu and my other blogs are http://wadmanstechnews.wordpress.com and http://ppccd2l.wordpress.com.  (Sorry, but I think I'm the only one not on Twitter.)  You can also find me in the CCCOnline Community shell.

Week 15: You Aren't Done Yet!

I know how we as instructors get at the end of semesters.  We have a tendency to focus on the "to-do" list and getting all of the grading done and scores in the gradebook.  Shoot, many of us are already making changes for next semester.  Please don't forget though, there are real students with real stress in this last week of this semester.

Make sure you post a closing News item with your contact information and keep checking your class(es) through the last day.  Students will be asking last minute questions and expecting faster than normal answers.  If you can give that to them, it may well be the difference in how they finish the course (and possibly if they take one next semester).

Don't be afraid to give students bad news if they've earned it, but try to do so with a calming tone.  For example, "I'm sorry, but I can't reopen Exam 1.  It just wouldn't be fair to the students who completed the work on time." is very different from "Exam 1 was due February 3rd.  I do not give extensions."  It might not seem like much, but a calm voice in this stressful week may be the difference in avoiding much bigger issues later.

Lastly, thank your students.  They have spent real money to take our classes.  We get to take part of that home in a paycheck.  The least we can do is say 'Thank You'.

The Great Tech Divide

While I was at eLCC listening to the presentations, one thing struck me.  The presenters (usually among the more seasoned instructors) seemed to be very concerned about the technological divide between themselves and their students.  They were concerned about students who are growing up on Facebook, Twitter and texting being over the head of the instructor.  There's nothing worse than having students show you, as an instructor, how to use the tools of the class.

While this is a valid concern, I think there's a bigger one coming; the divide between students' technical knowledge.  We will always have students who have more knowledge regarding technology than us.  (One of the best revelations I ever had in technology was discovering I was never going to know everything everybody else knew.  I just needed to tap into it by asking and observing.)  The problem is how do we keep the upper tech learner motivated while not over burdening the lower tech student.

Let me give you an analogy.  Student 1 is recently out of high school and has signed up for an online English Comp class.  She graduated from an online high school and is familiar with several LMS, blogs, wikis and ebooks.  She doesn't like carrying books, so she picked up an iPad to read and take notes on.  In her spare time, she likes keeping up with her friends with Facebook and is currently the mayor of the local hangout on Foursquare.  (Did you have to look up the last reference?  Here's a hint.)

Compare this to Student 2.  Student 2 was recently informed she will be laid off from a manufacturing job.  So, she has picked up a second job to help with the bills.  She has two children, one still at home, but has not yet reached retirement age.  She has to go back to school to get training to re-enter the workforce.  The first course she is going to take is English Comp because she did so well in it when she took it in 1985.  She has decided to take in online because of her busy home and work schedule.  Her home computer is a "hand-me-down" from one of her children.  She understands opening a browser, basic word processing and saving files.  However, she spends no more time online than she has to.

How do we teach both of these students?

I'm Bored

For those of you new to teaching online, being bored is likely the last thing to come to mind.  However, in my CNG 101 class, I've become bored.  I'm grading the same assignments, posting the same news and discussions and I think my boredom is starting to influence my teaching.  So, I'm going to make some changes.

No, I'm not reinventing the wheel or even changing books, but rather just changing up how I do things.  For example, I've had a weekly quiz which is three short paragraphs.  I'm going to change this up to be a matching question of terms and then some multiple choice questions instead. With the reduction in writing in the weekly assignments, I'm going to add an essay question to the Unit Exams.  They'll be graded the same way, just in different places.

I also want to make the discussion board more formal, at least the initial post.  Right now, students aren't graded on their writing ability (grammar, sentence structure, spelling, etc.) in the discussion boards.  The problem is by this point in the semester, the boards are sloppy and very difficult to read.  Students log in Sunday night, post quickly reply twice to others in the class and call it good.  This isn't what I want.  I want longer, more thoughtful discussions.

So, I'm looking at fewer discussions with more points for each.  I want to make each one more valuable.  I'm also thinking of requiring students to submit their first post before being able to read and post other's thoughts.  I'm just getting too much "group think" in the discussions.  Any other ideas for making the discussion board more formal?

No matter what I decide on the discussions, I'm sure the summer will be anything but boring.

Too Many Tools in the Bucket?

Last week, I was in Vail for the eLCC conference.  These conferences are great.  You get to talk to colleagues from other schools and in other disciplines to hear about what they are doing.  Also, you get to talk to other online instructors and get new ideas of cool things you can put in your courses.

The problem is now many of us have been teaching long enough our courses look like a tool bucket in the garage.  Lots of tools which all work.  That's the problem, there's too many tools and not enough focus on the work to be done with them.

So, instead of looking at the tools to decide what you want to do with your class, first look at the problem you need solved.  Do you need more interaction between students?  Do you need to motivate students to login to D2L more?  Perhaps rewriting your discussions is better for learning than embedding captioned YouTube video into a class Facebook fan page.  Let the course lead you to the right tool.  This is when it helps to have a full bucket to pull from.

Photo from ToolBoxesDirect.com (http://toolboxesdirect.com)

Using Tabs and Email

While for the most part, I like D2L, there are a few things which drive me crazy.  One is if I open an email (I use the pop-up email and not the preview pane), I can't keep the email up, go to another place in the course and then send my response.  This makes it tough to check on assignments, grades, etc. which are the focus of the email.

Well, I may just have a solution.  Open your email, same as normal.  Then, right-click on the CCCOnline Logo and select "Open link in new tab".  (NOTE: This is the Chrome wording.  The same option is available for Firefox and IE, but with slightly different wording.)

Once you open the new tab, you can work in the second tab and respond to email from the first.  This allows you to have your cake and eat it too!

BTW- D2L, unlike Bb, doesn't have a problem with having multiple tabs (or windows) open at the same time.  Just be sure to logoff when you are done.

Wadman's Tech News

I really enjoy teaching technology.  Unlike other subjects, technology is constantly changing and in the news.  So, when my discussions became very stale a few years ago (one of my better discussions was "Fiber vs. Wireless, What's the Future?) I realized it was time to change.  The other thing that came to mind when I was looking at changing discussions was I teach at two different institutions (Pikes Peak and CCCOnline) and many different levels.  How could I change all of those discussions without going crazy?

My answer was Wadman's Tech News.  I started a blog where I would post three tech news articles each week and we as a class would discuss the news.  Everything from the iPhone to Net Neutrality to how candidates in the 2008 Presidential campaign interacted with people online was discussed.  Students would read the articles and start discussing with each other.  They started to learn how what was in the book related to what was going on in the world today.

In subsequent semesters, I have added a weekly video creatively named 4th Blog Post where I go through my opinions on the previous weeks topics.  This allows me to be the moderator during the week and not have my opinions hinder the discussion.  I've also added student submission week where students find articles and email them to me.  I pick the top three and post them.  So, they get to pick topics.  A couple of years ago, I moved the blog to WordPress to make it more attractive.

Drawbacks?  Yes, there are a few.  During the first few weeks of class, I have to be patient and push them to the blog for the articles.  Most other classes don't have an outside location like this.  Secondly, I had to turn off the comments on the blog itself.  Too many students thought the conversation was on the blog itself instead of the LMS.  While this might be okay, I picked the Discussion area for privacy reasons.  Lastly, if there's a quiet week in technology, it can be tough to find topics.  On the other hand, I find we discuss privacy and Google quite a bit, so I have to pay attention to the diversity of the topics.

Will a blog like this work for everyone?  No, of course not.  However, I think it would work for any class where current events are of importance.  Also, if you are teaching for another institution other than CCCOnline, it can allow you to have one common location.

Helping a Shy Student

After 10 weeks of the term, I have finally found out why one of my students isn't posting in class discussions; he's shy.  I know it sounds strange, but I have to admit, it makes sense.  This student has turned in every assignment, done well with the exams, but he won't post in the discussion area.  So, when he opened up to me in a journal assignment, it made sense.

The problem I'm grappling with is how do I move forward with him.  I can just imagine this student in the classroom who says nothing during class, but studies, does his assignments and gets an A.  (This is a Networking class, not speech.)  He doesn't miss a class and stays after when he has questions.  Online communication is important, especially in Networking, but am I asking too much to have him posting weekly?

For the time being, I've asked him to post late in the week.  That way, he doesn't have to worry about replies from others.  If this doesn't work, I was thinking of having him agree to write me his posts and offer to post them for him after he emails them.  I'm not asking for complex posts here, but rather just opinions about current events in Networking.

I'm just at a loss.  Does anyone else have any ideas?

Are You In Sync?

After watching *NSYNC in an asynchronous manner such as YouTube, it got me thinking about how I've been using synchronous tools lately.

With the growth of technologies, such as Second Life, we are seeing more and more emphasis on synchronous teaching methods.  For those of you who don't know, this means you are interacting with your students in real time.  Examples of synchronous teaching include:

• SecondLife
• Instant Messaging
• Chat
• Meeting Software

One big advantage of using synchronous activities is the students get feedback immediately from a human teacher.  This gives the students more of a connection to the course and they don't have to wait for feedback.

Sounds great, right?  The problem is many students have signed up for classes to fit around their busy schedules. So, when do you schedule the synchronous activities to where everyone can attend?  Or do you schedule multiple sessions?  With multiple sessions, is it worth the additional time commitment?

These are tough questions you have to sort out with your content.  Here's some ideas:

Have IM office hours- I open a public IM account and let my students ping me when they want to talk about the course.  Students have to do the initiation, but I can be doing other things online during this time instead of just waiting.

Scheduled Chat Reviews- Right before a big exam, have a couple of different times students can stop in and chat with you.  The problem is you are more committed to the activity than IM.  On the other hand, students are likely to interact with each other more.  These can be done through D2L or any number of Web2.0 tools.

Second Life- I haven't done this, but you could set up a time to meet up with your class in Second Life.  This way, you can have audio as well as text chat.

Elluminate- You can schedule a session through Elluminate and meet with some or all of your students in a meeting environment.  You can share your screen and have students interact with you through text and/or voice.  You can also record the session for later review.

Honestly, I haven't been as good at synchronous activities since moving away from teaching nights.  I used to be able to open my IM and sit back in the office and wait for students.  It's proven much tougher for me since going 8-5 last fall.  (I just am tired and don't want to login during the evening hours most students area available.)  I'm hoping to find something soon as I do think it adds to my classes.

Outages

Right now, we are experiencing an Internet outage at PPCC.  (I'm piggy-backing on the student wireless network.)  So, while I'm on my laptop at work dealing with a slow connection, it came to mind, how do we deal with outages in our classes?

The unique thing about CCCOnline is the probability of everybody being down is very low.  Then again, it seems we always hear the line 30 minutes before and assignment or exam is due, "My Internet was down."  So, how do you balance this?

Personally, I'll give a student 48 hours for any reason.  They just have to contact me in advance of the due date.  What do you do?

Angry?

This weekend brought up an interesting situation.  After dealing with my twin 6 year olds and their weekly room cleaning, it was time for me to sit down and read some discussion posts in my classes.  Sounds harmless right?  Well, maybe you haven't had the experience of trying to get twin girls to pick up their toys, hair things, clothes, etc. and put them away.  (No, "away" does not mean put your clean clothes, hair ribbons and toys in the clothes hamper because it's the closest place to hide them!)

So, I finally got the room sorted out and was ready to read all of my students' insights.  However, after the third post of reading misspellings, bad grammar and strange comments, I couldn't take it.  Trust me when I say three posts shouldn't get me this upset.  I'm not even grading this discussion on grammar and spelling.  That's when it dawned on me, I was still angry from cleaning the room.  So, I walked away from the computer and did something else for awhile.

When I came back, the posts I came back to weren't as bad as I thought and was able to give some feedback and guidance which moved the conversation forward.  The experience was much nicer and I'm sure my responses to the students were much better received.

How do you know when it's not a good time to check your classes?  Do you have a fall-back time to do your classwork so you aren't forced to do it angry?

From the Facebook Feed...

 I don't know why this one got under my skin this weekend, but this reply showed up in a Facebook thread when discussing online education.  What would your reply have been?

 

Online classes can't duplicate the intimate one-on-one communication one gets in the classroom. They also can't duplicate group interaction. I've taken online classes, and I didn't learn as much as I did in the classroom.

Student/Teacher Boundaries

The Internet world has become much more social with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and now Google Buzz.  It seems most every day there's a new way to connect with other people.  While this is technology is great at connecting people, it can often connect people in ways they may not have foreseen.  Let me ask you some questions:

• Do you give students a personal email address in case D2L fails?
• Do you give students a home or cell phone number?
• Do you "friend" current students in Facebook/MySpace?  What about former students?
• Do you ask students to interact with you in public spaces, such as open forums?
• Would you be willing to purchase something from a student in your class through eBay, Craigslist, etc.?
• Do you play games online with your students?  What about former students?

While our administrators may have more details of what to do and what not to do, I'm of the opinion if it could look bad, even if it's not, don't do it.  Let me give you an example.

A few years back, a student and I figured out each other liked to play a specific video game.  He sent me an invite to play online against each other.  While I didn't see a problem, I could see others in the class thinking he was getting preferential treatment because of our gaming.  So, I told him if he was still interested, contact me about a month after class ended (through my college email) and I would consider it.  (We met online and played twice before each of us moved on to other games.)

I have no problem meeting up with former students in a social environment.  I think if we work for 15 weeks to try to build relationships with our students, we are dishonest if we ignore them afterward.  However, I make sure the commitments to the instructor/student relationship are completed before taking the step into social activities.  When in doubt, I ask my wife.  She's an outsider who helps give me some very solid advice.

Where are your boundaries?  Do you have an adviser to help you when you're not sure?

Spring Break Issues

I know many of us are fully aware of the Spring Break issues.  However, if you are new at CCCOnline, here's some things to remember.  First, CCCOnline does not take any time off for Spring Break.  While it might be nice to take a week off and sit in the sun, we just don't do it.  (If you know why CCCOnline doesn't take Spring Break, I'd be curious to know.)

Secondly, at least one of your students doesn't know CCCOnline isn't taking Spring Break.  So, how do you prevent this issue?  You could give a week where nothing is due and put twice as much work the following week.  Then again, to me, that's just another name for taking Spring Break.  I would go back to making sure you are mentioning it in your News items and maybe even in your Discussion area.

Lastly, even if CCCOnline isn't taking time off, students (and instructors) will still be traveling.  Any time you are traveling, make sure your students know when you are going to be away from the class, so they aren't waiting for replies.  Also, make sure to communicate what the expectations are for students who are away for several days.  Personally, I make sure the Spring Break time is pretty light, but there are still items due each week.

How do you handle Spring Break?

An Olympic Fall

A couple of weeks ago, I tried to get some more movement from this blog.  I was the only one in the CCCO community without any posts and was trying to get some more interaction.  What I tried doing was giving the people who were reading here a purpose to post in the community.  In this case, with only a few exceptions, it didn't really take off.

However, sometimes it's the side effect which are the most effective.  For example, I learned from Lisa that many folks are reading the blog, not from the community, but from RSS readers.  (I as well use Google Reader for most of my blog reading.) This makes it very difficult to post as it requires going to a separate site.  This makes me think about whether I should be using outside websites as much as I do in my classes.  Also, I didn't give much in the terms of motivation.  Maybe I should have found a carrot to offer too.

So, while my Olympic idea didn't go viral, it wasn't a failure, but more of a fall.  Besides, while it didn't happen in the Olympics, it gives me a chance to show this video. :-)

The Blahs

When I first started teaching for CCCOnline, it always looked like the other folks were always gung-ho and going 100 miles an hour for the full semester.  However, after the first semester or two I discovered I always had a lull of energy between 1/3 and half way through the semester.  I've since learned in private conversations, I'm not alone here. 

Last weekend, my blahs kicked in.  I know all of my students and the "newness" of the semester is over. The end is way too far away to even think about.  I don't want to grade my students' assignments or read their discussion posts even though there's nothing different about them this week.

So what do you do when the blahs hit?  Here's a list of items I've done:

• Mix up the discussions.  See if you can get  something different from your students.
• Take a day or two off.  (Just be sure to communicate your plans to your students.)
• Work in a different physical environment.  Take a laptop to a coffee shop you don't usually go to.  Try listening to different music while you work.
• Find a content appropriate funny YouTube video and post it in the News.

Falling Isn't Failing

As a Colorado native, one of the things you have to do as a kid is learn to ski.  The first few times were spent on beginner slopes snowplowing and falling.  However, as I progressed I was starting to find myself on tougher and tougher slopes, but I was still falling.  So, I did what any kid would do, ask my friends who were better skiers.  One said something that still sticks with me, "If you aren't falling, you aren't getting better."

As I've gotten older I've really come to appreciate that wisdom.  You see, sometimes those of us who have been teaching awhile have a tendency to sit back and cruise.  We don't like to fall down.  It hurts and we still have our scars when we were starting so we take fewer chances.  The problem is if we do this, we "aren't getting any better."

So, if you are feeling like you are cruising, start taking some more chances.  Yes, you may fall.  (I did with my Olympic experiment despite Karen's best efforts, but more on that next week.)  On the other hand you will learn what works and what doesn't while expanding your horizons.  More importantly, you will be passing a message to your students about trying new things.

Is Midnight the Beginning or the End?

This is a little point, but one which has burned many of us, myself included.  You have an assignment you want due on Sunday at midnight.  So, you write a News item telling your students the item is due at midnight Sunday and you set the Dropbox Folder with the restrictions of Sunday at 12:00 AM.  Of course, this is also included in your schedule.

Sounds good right?  Well, that depends on how you think of midnight.  You've set the assignment to close between Saturday night/Sunday morning.  While this might be exactly what you want, a group of your students will be confused and think it's the midnight between Sunday and Monday.  This is almost guaranteed.

To avoid this confusion, give the due date at 11:59pm.  I know it sounds trivial, but this one minute can make a big difference.  Besides, '11:59pm' only has 7 keystrokes and 'midnight' has 8.  :-)

Save Often!

In my "day" job, I am a Course Designer for Pikes Peak Community College. One of my duties is running another blog to support faculty. I thought today's post fit here as well.

Save Often! PPCC Desire2Learn:

As I go through my day with D2L, I find myself saying several phrases over and over again. The most common right now is “Save Often”. D2L has a wonderful way of showing your changes before you click on the Save feature. That way if you don’t want to keep your changes, you simply go some place else or hit cancel. The problem is, often we get going too fast and make changes we never save. So, slow down and hit that save button.

This is also something we need to be reminding our students. Just yesterday, I heard a horror story from an instructor. She had set her quiz to ‘auto-submit’ if the time had expired. Sounds reasonable enough. However, the student had gone through the entire quiz without saving a single question when time ran out. You guessed it. The student lost everything.

Save yourself from agony later. Take the extra second and hit 'Save'.

Is This Thing On?

After blogging for the past few weeks, I'm still the only one without any comments in the community.  While a touch discouraging, it's nothing to experiencing the same thing in your classes.  What do you do when your students don't seem to be reading the News or other items you need them to read on a regular basis?

I have an idea to try to generate some traffic here which may also work in your classes.  Let's see how many references to the Olympics you can put in the other blog writer's threads in the next week or so.  Make sure you are staying on topic, but when given a chance, mention something pertaining to the Olympics.  I've posted one in Phyllis' discussion area named "Old News" to get you started. 

The most creative ones I'll reference here.  (In your class, you could give extra credit.)  If anyone asks where you got the idea, don't be afraid to send them back here. ;->

Quizzzzzz

I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but why do outages (or slowdowns) always happen when you are trying to grade?

A Second Life Experience

The post below is being written over the course of several hours today as I play with SecondLife and then attend the Mixer on Colorado EduIsland.  It is a stream of thoughts, so please be patient with me...

Background and Bias- While I've been in SecondLife I think a total of about 5 hours, I've become the "expert" at PPCC on the subject.  I don't think I'm much of an expert because I know how to create an account, and follow some directions.  (It doesn't take much to see there's a TON more I have no clue about.)

I first logged into SecondLife about 3 years ago at Telecoop during a session and went back to try it in the room that night.  While it had some "WoW" factor (pun intended), I can't say I've found an application for it in my classes.  However, we've been pushed into looking at it again this year, so I'm going to give it a shot.

Creating a New Account- I'm creating a new account from scratch. It's pretty easy.  You put your name, email, password and gender in.  Then you pick a first name and it gives you a list of options for last names.  My name is Nate Wassep.  It's close enough to my real name to work as a public persona.

So, now it's time to pick out my avatar. (That word means something different now, doesn't it?)  There aren't a lot of options, but I'll pick the bald guy, because it fits.  Of course, the pigment of skin doesn't match me, but I'm pretty sure I can customize it.

After loading the software, I went through the tutorial.  I ran into two issues.  First, I couldn't see the buttons at the bottom of the screen.  When I went to do a screen capture, I discovered the buttons were there, just hidden behind my Tool Bar.  Once I un-maximized the screen, it worked much better.

The second issue is I couldn't change the pigment of my skin.  I want the avatar to at least pretend to be me.  I couldn't solve this second issue, so I resigned myself to the issue and moved to Colorado EduIsland.

Exploring EduIsland on My Own-  I wanted to go onto the Island before the crowd arrived later today, just to see if I can remember how to navigate.  I seemed to do pretty well.  (Maybe I am the "expert"!)  It was here I also found more clothes, skins, etc. for my avatar.  I wish I had known they were here before I started.

 

This is better, but he looks 10 years too young and has WAY too much hair! I have no idea why I care so much about my appearance.  Maybe I've played too many computer games. Oh well, it's a "second life", so why not gain some hair and lose 10 years?  I wonder if our students will have the same hang-ups on appearance I had.

Going to the "Mixer"- I logged in and there weren't too many folks.  Being a n00b (newbie), I walked off the edge of the platform:

After getting out of the water, I recognized a couple of people and started chatting.  I had some issues learning how to "Talk".  You really want a headset for this because the background noise can be really distracting.  In any case, if you click on the lock button, you can talk non-stop, but that's not always recommended.  It's a lot like a conference call.

The Tour- I wanted to check out the place, so off I went to the first building I saw.  It looked a lot like the Air Force Academy chapel, but with seats and a disco ball.  It looked like a good place to go sit down.

 

One thing I notice about Second Life which bothers me is the lack of people for the space.  This room is huge and I'm the only one here.

After flying off, Clarity joined me and offered me a tour.  Since I've been to the Island only once before, and that was a rush in and out in 15 minutes, I accepted the offer.

The first place she showed me was a discussion area.  These are simple areas where instructors can meet and talk with their students.  There aren't any special buildings or objects, but quiet places to hold a class conversation.

Of course, in Second Life, you can build much more elaborate "scenes" in "holodecks".  (Why am I not surprised the SL crew is taking terminology from Star Trek?)  In any case, the first holodeck Clarity showed me was a generic one.

 

But of course, we have some fine folks working hard on building customized ones like at a Childcare center:

Can you find the areas in the center which are out of place?  I sure can't but I was assured some items were not where they belonged to begin discussions with the Early Childhood Education students.

The last holodeck area was one for criminal justice, including a courtroom and jail.  Special detail is being included in the building of this area including locked doors and bolted down objects.

 

The next stop on the tour was the 4 floor Maze.  This included a navigation area for folks learning how to move around, go carts to learn how to navigate vehicles, games and a planetarium.

 

(At this point, I started doing something wrong with my screen captures, so I lost the cool pictures of the huge computer sitting on top of the planetarium.)

After checking out the computer, we went to the Fire Science area.  This is what it looks like right now:

 

Needless to say, it looks like it needs some work.  However, judging from the rest of the Island, I have confidence it will look cool soon enough.

The End- My tour ended here.  Unfortunately, a teleport snafu and the fact it's Friday afternoon and my "first life wife" wants me to come home on time lead to me simply logging out.

Quick Conclusions- The Island was much more developed than I thought.  Second Life doesn't really prepare students to go through the initial training very well.  Colorado EduIsland seems to fill that in very well.  Of course, will our students have Clarity to give us such a great tour?

I may add some more to my thoughts on my time in Second Life today after I've had a chance to digest it all.

Second Life Mixer

I'll be blogging about my experience at this event tomorrow.  Please join us!

Colorado EduIsland would like to introduce you to SecondLife!
Event:  “The Mixer” is a training and social event for everyone
When: February 19th, 2010 from 3-6 pm
Where: Colorado EduIsland in SL (follow the following link after loading SL you’re your Computer and you will automatically be teleported to the island).
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/132/110/22 <http://slurl.com/secondlife/Colorado%20EduIsland/132/110/22>
About the Event: Colorado EduIsland is hosting a “Mixer” event. This is both an educational and social event to introduce beginning users (i.e., “newbie's”) to Second Life (SL).  New and experienced users are welcome to join in the fun as experienced “Avatars” escort and tour you through the educational facilities on the island. There will be discussions and valuable teaching tools for you to exhibit and see how to utilize SecondLife (SL) in on-ground and online classrooms.
If you haven’t recently visited our island, you will experience some new terrain for exploration and teaching purposes. Our training facility is now equipped with a Maze and a Planetarium to get up and running in SL in no time.

Activities, both structured and unstructured, will be staged around the island for educators and students to discover basic functionality, maneuvering, and broadening of proficiency skill sets. There will be a treasure hunt with door prizes and plenty of free gifts for participators! Of course you will also have a chance to meet new and old friends from various colleges around Colorado and other neighboring educational places.
Planned training stations activities and exercises will be available to instruct you on:
·      How to maneuver, fly, and teleport your avatar

·      How to access and utilize the program menus and tools that come with your account and avatar

·      How to Change appearances, wear objects, and work with the inventory that comes with your account

·      Also included are fireside chats and other discussions include topics on how to teach in SL and using various teaching tools, and other valuable educational conversations

If you would like more information to get started check out details on the CCCOnline Faculty Wiki at, Getting Started in SecondLife with the community colleges in Colorado <http://at.ccconline.org/faculty/wiki/Tech_Tools_-_Other_Tools_-_Second_Life> .

Out Sick Messages

This Tuesday, I was under the weather and didn't get my weekly News item up as scheduled.  While I got the message up on Wednesday, and didn't hear any complaints, I probably should have at least posted a quick note of the reason for the delay.  The same procedure probably should be done when traveling or dealing with other issues which take us away.

Students like to know you are in the class and when something isn't following the plan, they tend to get nervous. A quick little note letting them know why may well save an issue later.

Journal Problem

In my CCENT class, I require my students to write a journal.  This isn't a big assignment, but it gives my students a chance to tell me how things are going.  While I don't use this in my other classes, I've found it very helpful in this one.  In order to get students to do this, I like giving them a few points.

I haven't found a good way to do this in D2L.  In Blackboard, we had a Journal tool in the Discussion area which allowed for private conversations which were graded.  At the beginning of the semester, I thought I would just use an anonymous discussion and it would work.  The problem is, students can't see any posts (even theirs or mine) unless I release them to the entire class.  This defeats the purpose of the exercise.

The logical choice would be to use "Journal".  There's one major drawback.  Students can't see my comments and I can't see theirs.  Unless I'm missing something major, this isn't really an interactive journal.

So, since I needed some advice, I went to my D2L mentor.  Carol understood the problem, but didn't have a great answer either.  She recommended I use the D2L email for the journals.  I really don't care for the email in D2L, especially for assignments, so I didn't want to do that.  The Dropbox is the next solution I looked at, but bouncing ideas back and forth can become burdensome. 

My solution, for the time being, is to add a one question quiz to each Unit.  This question will be manually graded and can be taken as many times as the student wishes before the due date.  I don't like the word "Quizzes" because I'm not after a specific answer, but it's an empty area of the course to use where we can interact for a grade.

Anybody else have an idea?  (I'll keep you posted on whether I find a good solution.)

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing any online instructor can do is login and check classes.  For me, this is daily.  Yes, seven days a week.  Over the course of the semester, there are days I don't get it done, but they are extremely rare.  So, I'm sure you are asking two questions; why and how?

Let's start with the why.  Your students want you to be in the class.  They don't want to feel like they are alone.  If they see you posting in your class daily, they will learn they can ask questions and get answers in a timely manner.  This will give them confidence in the class and in turn the material.  Retention and student success numbers show, active instructors equal successful classes.

The other side of this coin is how.  I know what many of you are thinking, "I have a life. I can't do this every day."  I say you can.  On weekends, do two things; check email and discussions once per day.  That's it.  No more.  While I try to reply to every email, my posts per day go down dramatically on the weekend.  One or two discussion replies each day to let the class know I'm there and that's it.  For my 3 CCCOnline classes, this rarely takes more than about 30 minutes per day.  That's an hour each weekend.  Experience has taught me, if I spend an hour each weekend in the class, I save at least twice that much on Monday picking up the pieces.

Squirels

Last summer, I took my daughters to see the movie "Up".  It's a great movie.  In the movie, though, the dogs have the issue of being distracted anytime they think a squirrel is near.


Unfortunately, I could relate all too well to the dogs when it came to teaching online.  There I was teaching my class, minding my own business when cool new tech stuff comes along.  Okay, let's get back to my class...Twitter, Facebook,  Blogs, YouTube, Chat, Podcasting, SecondLife,... UGH!  Too much stuff!

Okay, here's what I've learned about all of this.  Yes, there are many tools out there to do really cool stuff to your class.  However, you need to ask yourself, "Will this make my class better?"  Remember, you have to run the class, including being comfortable with the tools.  If not, you aren't making the class better.

So, pick one or two tools each semester and focus on doing them well.  That way, you aren't so distracted and confused by your class.  They don't have to be special either, especially if you are new to teaching online.

This semester, I'm adapting to D2L, focusing on the News items and Groups.  I want to focus on the News to be that "front page" for students as they come into the class.  I want it to be pleasing to the eye, while still directing them to the areas of the class they need to focus on.  The other item of focus this semester is Groups to better filter my crosslisted course. Items should not bleed over to the other class in the same shell and I'm hoping this filter will work.  So far, so good.  I'm seeing other tools I might want to add, but I'm not following such squirrels.

What are your tools you want to focus on this semester?  What squirrels are you trying to avoid?

Accommodations

I suppose a big part of this blog is talking about things which come up you weren't planning for.  Well, one hit this morning.  I got an email from Roxanne asking me to make accommodations for a student with learning disabilities.

While this is something I have done many times in classes at PPCC, it's a first for me at CCCOnline.  However, it turned out not to be a big deal.  The student needed some extra time to complete timed exams.  Since I only have six Unit Exams and a Final which are timed, I only had seven items to fix.

In D2L, the project became even easier to complete.  I went to the Quiz and clicked on the pencil and went to the Restriction tab.  At the bottom is Special Access.  I gave the student special access, picked the time I wanted to give and saved.  All is done and it took me less than 15 minutes.

Sometimes, the surprises aren't that big a deal!

Greetings

Greetings all.  This blog is to give anyone who wonders by a chance to look into my world of online teaching. 

Before that though, why don't I give you a bit of background.  I've been teaching online since the Spring of 2003.  I've taught both Computer Networking and College Prep Math for CCCOnline and Pikes Peak Community College.  Now, for my full-time job, I work in the PPCC Distance Ed. office as an online course designer.  So, I've seen all sorts of online classes and ways to run them.

In the coming weeks, you should get a pretty good idea of what's going on in my classes.  This semester, I'm teaching two CNG 101 (Introduction to Networking) sections and a crosslisted section of CNG 245/CNG 246 (Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician or CCENT).  Like teaching itself, it's often pretty uneventful, but you never know when things will get interesting.