Writing for Careers

Final Project: Faculty In-Service Training on Web 2.0

2009-12-14T14:55:00.000-06:00

My final project is a prezi (innovative online presentation tool) of how to teach with Web 2.0 tools. This prezi will be presented as my Faculty In-Service Training in either February, April, or June 2010. I used much pre-work from our class, from continuing all term to develop my bubbl.us project outline to incorporating many of the mini-projects developed for weekly assignments. Before I summarize my presentation, I want to stress how crucial Rick's audio feedback from my blog was to the final development of this project. He stressed, as did the literature this term, that these tools need a purpose. Rick reminded me that--rather than just teach teachers to use these tools--I need to stress why they would consider using them. While I had already thematized the tools into my presentation's major headings, I had not included in my early drafts any justification for using web 2.0 in the classroom. I hope you will find, in the full version of my presentation and below, good reasons to use these tools in class!

Major Categories of My Presentation
To distill all the tools we've learned into what can be applied in my two-year career college context, I had to consider:

My college's job-placement mission
The college's technological capabilities/limitations
How to motivate faculty to want to use these tools
Which tools would both simplify teachers' lives and benefit their students (what we call synergies)

Here is what I came up with.

Introduction: The presentation begins by contrasting web 1.0 (the read web) with web 2.0 (the read-write web). Here are the presentation's main points:

Organizing the Web: To make searching the web for teaching materials easier, I introduce for faculty:

Google Reader (aggregator): Using the analogy of how they previously got their information through subscriptions, I show how the reader saves time by bringing their preferred content to them. I show a common craft video on RSS in Plain English. We actually sign up for google reader using a webcast I made and hosted on Netfiles with a public setting (i.e. you can use it too). Then we subscribe to RSS feeds in several different media categories (i.e. news sites, blogs, etc.). I stress the major hurdle is getting into the habit of visiting your reader on a regular basis.
Diigo: I introduce common pitfalls of bookmarking to a local machine (i.e. you bookmark to your home computer but find yourself at school needing the link) and show how diigo is a solution. The presentation shows them a diigo video from youtube that we watched in class. I have set up a diigo group for my faculty (including establishing all their usernames and passwords), and I will have them join during the presentation. I also emphasize how diigo allows users to interact with pages (highlight and annotate) and how they can share pages with others.

Blogs: I describe 3 potential ways teachers might use blogs:

For finding material (1) about their course subjects and (2) about teaching. I stress that they can both consume and contribute information.
Having students blog to (1) journal about their learning; (2) reflect on course material; (3) create e-portfolios; and/or (4) post drafts of writing for each other to critique. I include an example I found through a blog search, plus an e-portfolio blog I made for this class.
For posting assignments and due dates. I present an example found in a blog search.

The blog section ends with a screencast I made, uploaded to youtube, and embedded in the presentation. The screencast has faculty use their google account created earlier in the training to sign up for a blogger blog.

Collaboration and Group Work: I present 2 additional tools for facilitating the participatory aspects of the read-write web:

Wikis: I describe wikis as the epitome of web 2.0 (based on the wikipedia model) and also the most misunderstood (again, based on popular maligning of wikipedia). I share a diigo-annotated article that blasts popular wiki myths. I also share a real company's wiki that works great for its purpose, and I showcase the wiki I started as our weekly class assignment that is now morphing into a real class wiki that goes live Jan. 4, 2010!
Ning: I describe how Ning shares many of the features of blogs (asynchronous posting) but also allows for synchronous chat. I created a ning for the in-service that requires participants to respond to a post, respond to each other's posts, personalize their "My Page," and engage in a live chat. I have a link to our class role play as well.

The prezi, my screencasts, and the youtube videos are intended to show faculty some of the other tools at their disposal. There are so many tools I don't even cover in the presentation, but I left faculty some of the low-hanging fruit to discover on their own (i.e. the googles: docs, calendar, and sites). We plan a follow-up to the in-service during which time faculty share which of these tools they have tried, their results, and what they plan to do differently/the same in the future. I will also begin implementing some of these tools more regularly, such as wikis for signing up for reviews of student evaluations, screencasts for demonstrating new technology, online calendaring, etc.

E-portfolios and Reflection

2009-12-06T13:56:00.000-06:00

This was one of my favorite assignments for the term because it required me to do two things I had been thinking about doing anyway:

Revising my blog into a portfolio.
Finding a free, professional looking host for electronic portfolios for my college's graphic design students.

As Beach et all point out in this week's reading, blogs are ideal for reflection as the author can pick out the best of his or her work to showcase. Beach et al also praised the flexibility afforded by blogs and wikis as e-portfolios, and I agree that generic tools work for this purpose. One of the links in the ning forum didn't work, but its topic was using blogger to create an electronic portfolio. This intrigued me because I could revise my own blogger blog into a portfolio, and blogger could hold potential for free student use. I googled the topic and found an e-how article for making blogger into an e-portfolio. With some experimenting of settings and layout, I made a shell for a free, professional looking e-portfolio in blogger! Then came the productive work of reflecting on what I have learned so far in this class. And really it's everything. I had not done any of our assignments before, except for making rubrics. I learned an immense amount of information and can safely say this is the most learning--and the most fun--I've had in my program.

Reflection on My Learning
Here's a summary of my learning:

Blogs: I had never started a blog, let alone read or subscribed to one. Now I subscribe to several. Here is my current favorite: Chris Brogan's blog.
Reader: I had never even heard of a reader. Now I use google reader to read the above blogs and gather other news items of interest to me.
Vlogs: I had never heard of vlogs, had never seen a vlog, and had never made a vlog. I have not continued to engage vlogs in the same was a blogs, but many blogs I follow have some sort of video accompaniment, which puts them in the catgegory.
Wikis: I had heard of wikipedia and had revised some existing entries. But I hadn't realized how accessible this medium is. Free wikis abound and they are very easy to create and edit. With a little attention, one can even make them look professional. My computer teacher is implementing my help desk wiki created for this class.
Online role playing: This was a new way for me to engage a learning topic. I loved it. However, for the first time I also experienced the skimming sort of learning method at issue in the role play (is google making us stupid?). I am happy to report I can still delve deeply into text, as well as skim for specific information. I plan to have my faculty replicate this type of assignment. Additionally, the chat function we used on the final phase of this assignment is something else I will replicate in my college. Specifically, next term we will be using live chat in a ning for computer students to role play customer and computer helpdesk representative.
Digital videos: I had used a camera for recording my teachers but had never created a story, edited it, and posted it online. Since the class project, I have filmed and edited additional material and posted them to my new youtube account (also a google property). Now, I plan to record faculty presenting lessons (15-20 minutes) in class and then upload them to videoant as the feedback mechanism. I am excited about the convenience for providing crique (viewing and responding simultaneously). I also like how videoant shows all written comments when they are associated with what is occurring in the video. Previously, I would have to integrate all critiquers feedback into one, coherent document that was still divorced from the video itself because it was on paper.
Podcasts: This was the most technically challenging endeavor of the semester. Of course, that's because I wanted to add a soundtrack. I am working on a podcast with my son ranking the top professional baseball players from the 2009 season. We will publish our first episode after the class concludes. I'll provide RSS info in case you want to subscribe! I also think instructors will make more use of voice recording for students who are absent or can't attend a review session.
Screencasts: Totally a new concept to me. By far one of my favorite new media. I am making screencasts regularly at work now. They provide better instruction (easier to follow) than my old format of memo with screenshots. I am someone who likes to be creative and to teach but does not require a spotlight on me. Screencasts provide a more "anonymous" way for me to contribute to the read-write web and student and faculty learning (especially if I use text annotations instead of voice or a talking head!).
Comics & Cartoons: Along with screencasts, this was my other favorite medium. Please see my e-portfolio created for this assignment (in blogger) to read about my affinity and planned uses for cartoons and comics.

E-portfolios
I chose blogger for my e-portfolio instead of other sources, like a wiki or free sites dedicated to portfolios, because blogger is free, easy to use, and has so many professional looks. Beach et al called the dedicated sites more web 1.0 tools. I have only just begun my portfolio and will refine it over time. In reflecting on the topics we learned, I distilled from my class blog the most important information and added additional information learned/processed since the original posts. The result is a concise e-portfolio with samples of my work that looks professional. Please visit my web 2.0 e-portfolio. I would appreciate learning how I can make it look more professional. Please make comments here, on this blog post, not on my e-portfolio. Thanks!

Our graphic design program has been using CDs to hold students digital portfolios, instead of web hosting due to technical and financial barriers. So I began this week's reading with the hope of finding a solution for me and for my graphic design students.I think the blogger site works well enough for students to post their work. The limitation could be the 1GB storage maximum. Students could always post a thumbnail or reduced version and link to a fuller version posted at a free site with bigger limits. I will have to have the faculty experiment with this.

We use traditional paper portfolios with our students already--in all major fields of study for their entire course of study at our college. The portfolio serves three specific purposes:

To show students how much they are learning (which helps show them progress and value)
To showcase student accomplishments during a job interview
To serve as a reference for students when they are on the job (keep in mind we are a career college)

An electronic portfolio would serve all of these purposes, though the job interview does not always allow specific involvement of an e-portfolio. The latter, however, could help the student get the job interview in the first place if referenced in a cover letter/resume. A blog itself is a kind of portfolio--just rougher than a formal e-portfolio. One advantage to the original blog, if kept journal-like throughout a course or program of study, is that it tracks the students' learning while it happens. Those lightbulb moments and rare spurts of clarity can be useful to look back on, even if this blogfolio is only used specifically by its creator.

Feedback and Assessment

2009-11-30T18:15:00.006-06:00

Providing Feedback to Teachers
When providing feedback to my instructors (such as when they have curricular ideas), I try to use email because of four advantages it offers:

It's in writing so that they can refer to it conveniently

It's portable (they can access the feedback wherever they have Internet access)

It's asynchronous, so they can access it when they are ready to process my feedback. Any synchronous method might provide feedback at a time that is not optimal for the instructor to consider the feedback

Email is an easy way to create dialog with an ongoing transcript

The faculty have preferred to initiate dialogue via email for what I think are similar reasons, with a twist on the synchronicity aspect. While the communication is technically asynchronous, I often respond within minutes so that they can get timely feedback, especially on technical details and yes/no questions. Of course, if I don't know the answer or need to consider a question in more depth, I will not fully respond right away but will always reply promptly with an expected timeframe for the answer or a follow-up question.

I have not tried other modalities for providing feedback. However, I think that a screencast response with voice could be a great way to provide feedback on wiki or ning-based assignment proposals from faculty. A camstudio screencast (see my screencasting blog post) would allow me to provide verbal feedback on a specific aspect of the faculty member's proposal while they see me clicking through their assignment/site. I would be unlikely to email such feedback as even a 2-minute shockwave screencast without sound approaches 3MB, but I could deposit the file in the instructor's personal drive on our network or a provide a link to a web address. I look forward to trying this.

Rubrics
I would not provide instructors with rubric assessments of their work. But they would assess student work with rubrics. I am a huge fan of rubrics because they serve as both an assignment sheet and a time-saving grading tool. I have encouraged my faculty to use them by offering a number of in-service trainings on their development and use and by providing rubric samples and templates on our shared faculty network drive. Once a teacher uses a rubric, she tends to be hooked. They save time. Maybe an hour goes into creating a good rubric, but grading time can be reduced significantly per student as the instructor does not have to write the same summative phrases over and over on each paper (see Beach et al in this week's assigned reading for numerous examples of teachers bemoaning the triteness of writing comments on student writing).

My "Help Topics Wiki" Rubric
I decided to create a rubric for assessing student wikis. Earlier in 5475, we created templates for a wiki assignment (see my blog post on this topic). My wiki project was for computer students to build "help topic wikis" for troubleshooting and problem solving common technology challenges.

I wanted to use time-saving technology to help me create the rubric. I started with Thinking Gear's Rubric Machine, which provided an outstanding 6-step heuristic process for helping you think through what you want students to learn and how you will assess their performance. I highly recommend the site and the process. However, the resulting rubric left much to be desired. There were too few categories that were themselves too verbose. The site lacks a simple editing process or basic rubric generator. Maybe further use would show me how to respond to the heuristics in a way that generates a more desirable rubric, but I wasn't going to master the site in one use. So I recommend using another service for building rubrics based on what you learn with the Rubric Machine.

Rubistar has a great template and allows free building of rubrics. Users do not need to register if they just want to create and print rubrics. To add rubrics to the Rubistar database and access it later, users register and continue using the service for free. There is also a fee-based interactive digital feedback service available. This would help accomplish some of what Beach et al point out in this week's reading--that the assessment method should match the unique aspects of digital writing (multimodality). Another real plus of Rubistar is that you can copy and paste the rubric into Word or Excel without losing formatting! I made an Excel version of the rubric with formulas for easy grade tabulation.

Here is the Rubistar-hosted version of the "Help Topic Wikis" rubric that I brainstormed in Thinking Gear and refined in Rubistar.

Design Considerations

2009-11-23T14:00:00.003-06:00

Presentation Design Considerations
I was rocked a little from my safe world of thoroughly packed PowerPoint slides by the "less is more" movement championed by Merlin Mann. I began considering the notion that I should be telling the story, not my slides.

Then I visited some sample presentations, looking for "less is more," on slideshare. What I discovered is that such presentations don't lend themselves well to unnarrated or unaccompanied presentations. The "less is more" presentation is useless as a standalone teaching tool. It might serve as a relic to jog the memory of someone who witnessed the brilliant presentation (like Merlin's google talk), but as a public document to share, it's pretty useless.

So it's important to differentiate between the valid points that--on the one hand--(1) giving a presentation can be more about talking than filling slides with words, data, and bullets and--on the other hand--(2) the "less is more" slideshow is not suitable as a standalone teaching tool. For example, in Faculty Orientation, I cover our entire yearly strategy, as well as review the previous year, so that all faculty are on the same page. If someone is ill or I make a late hire, my PowerPoint presentation can stand on its own. So how does the "less is more" consideration affect my practice? Here are two good solutions:

1. Be a writer!
Most of us who write journal-article length research papers start with more material than we need and then whittle it down to a finished product. Likewise, you can make your bloated PowerPoint or Keynote, and save it as the teaching standalone that you want to share with the world. But then whittle it down to just a few words and an image per slide for the actual presentation you will be giving.

2. Record Video or Audio
I could record my orientation for later playback. The limitation is that Orientation is 6-7 hours, which would be a monster video file! Even the audio might get pretty beefy. But it's possible.

My Presentation Did Not Empress(r)
I wound up making a "less is more" presentation. I sought evocative pictures and matched them with impactful statements. Trying to write first and find images to match my words rarely works for me. I'm too picky. So it's easier to find a thematic image first and then write for it. This presentation has a little bit more "meat" to it than an orthodox image with a few words. I have data, including a graph. I also made a tinyurl to refer the audience to a web site for more information. So my presentation is not totally useless as a standalone, but it lacks my usual detail.

To build the presentation, I used the web site Empressr. I was not pleased with it overall. Moving text and images was cumbersome and not intuitive (the constant need to double-click was annoying). Making a chart was impossible. I could not get the rows equally sized, could not shrink the size of one column, and could not get all the text to display unless it was too tiny for a presentation. I finally gave up trying to create the table and just used text boxes to simulate a table (without gridlines). Reordering also slides took more slight of hand than a magic trick.

The feature I did like was the ability to import images via supplying a URL or performing a limited but robust search of Google, Flickr, youtube, etc., from within Empressr. This saved me time. Also, since it's a web app, Empressr provided an embed code, saving me from having to upload to slideshare or other host.

Involve Me!
The other challenge for me was to make my presentation more interactive. I am definitely a didactic presenter. However, I flatter myself that I am engaging enough to keep my audience's interest. I use humor, anecdotes, etc. However, building a presentation to be inherently interactive took work. I first made a didactic presentation, and then identified the opportunities to get the audience involved. Honestly, the interactive version is a better presentation. It's the one I would want if I were in the audience. I need to be more empathetic to my audience when presenting, just as I try to be as a writer.

Getting students to see their writing from the audience perspective would be easy if they get feedback on their writing from a real audience (i.e. blog post comments from classmates and teacher). However, given their "off the cuff" nature, blogs don't come to mind as the leading strategy for teaching revision strategies. Students need to learn that formal writing and writing for a specific purpose, such as to persuade, needs revising. I went through a process of making a presentation that had the content/message I desired--and then I revised it to be more interactive. Students need to experience the balance between content and audience. Maybe they could be assigned a presentation that taught a specific topic. Then they could be tasked to go back and make it interactive for their audience.

Poor Web Site!
When we were studying comics recently, I visited the Dilbert homepage. The site is awash with different gadgets that let you interact with Dilbert cartoons. However, each and every page contains so many similar looking Dilbert cartoon strips that I felt overloaded! The site literally stressed me out. I thought Mashups (you fill in the final caption on a Dilbert strip) were a great idea, especially after we were creating our own cartoons in class. I clicked on the link but could not for the life of me figure out how to create my own. There was an endless stream--again--of strips sorted by how recently they were created. I would think sorting them by the most popular would make more sense, since you are allowed to vote for your favorite. That aspect of the site is still in beta, so maybe it will improve. Suffice it to say, I will not be revisiting the site. It's such a disaster that a screen shot won't do it justice; you have to experience it.

Easy on the Eyes Blogs
Chris Brogan's blog on community and social media has a layout I prefer. Simple menu headings on top, the latest blog post, and blurbs of the last several blog posts with links to full articles. The right side has a plug for his book but it is otherwise uncluttered. There is plenty of whitespace so my eyes don't feel like they are being pulled in every direction. I feel serenity while reading. Another blog whose design I like is the fast forward blog by Bill Ives. The blog posts are listed in full, and at the bottom of each are links to related blog posts. The right column has more stuff in it, but it is easy to ignore while reading blog posts.

Comparing Dilbert's site to some blogs might at first seem like comparing apples to oranges. However, all three sites want visitors to read what they have written, and all have books to sell. The blog authors, however, are appealing to a specifically intellectual or digerati audience that would not tolerate total chaos. Dilbert's appeal is to silliness, even if its audience includes the sophisticated set in addition to cubicle dwellers in seek of a respite.

Prezi

2009-11-17T18:24:00.001-06:00

http://prezi.com/dhaqw89mi118/

Comics in the Curriculum

2009-11-14T10:53:00.009-06:00

At first blush, comics might not seem to have a place in the career-oriented college. That was my knee-jerk reaction. But after reading about them, looking at examples, and trying three different comic-making sites on my own, I have found useful applications.

Makebeliefscomix
The first comic I created was to illustrate an existing policy manual that instructs teachers how to respond to common student concerns. Since the policy manual is written as a dialogue, a comic is an idea way to bring the policy manual to life. The comic is more fun to read, more succinct, and offers potential for a touch of humor. Sarcasm/humor is hard to interpret in a personnel manual (and probably not appropriate). However, in a comic, it can easily be interpreted and felt more appropriate.

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=3924233C165707

For this comic, I used makebeliefscomix. The site, which lets you create comics online for free, has a limited amount of options but is perfect for the kind of comic I created: something short, sweet, and dialogue based. However, there was enough selection of characters that I was able to find ones that illustrated the student rule violation under consideration. The site is very easy to use relative to the other sites reviewed here. While you can save a link to your comic, you can't save just the strip. So while it had the most limited options, it was user-friendly. I will create an entire set of cartoon strips to illustrate the college's rules. I will probably print them and cut them out. I might even consider sharing them with students in our orientation process.

ComicLife
The second comic I created used Comic Life. This is a software program that you download (free 30-day trial). The program is based on using real images. You can access photos on your computer or capture images to import directly into ComicLife. The program is robust and provides options to create the feel of real comic books, though you can choose short comic strip panels as well. You can save the individual comics, can create comic books, and can export them as html or image filed (i.e. jpg).

My graphic design students already use this program (comes with iMac) as an initial assignment to orient them to the Mac, planning, and basic design. The Graphic Design Program Director told me the program is not advanced enough for a final professional-level portfolio. Page layout software (i.e. Adobe InDesign) would be used instead.

I think ComicLife would be useful also to our Travel students. I designed a basic travel brochure comic to promote South Dakota. The practice of choosing "representative" images for a particular destination would be a good practice for these future travel professionals. Students could access images using creative commons images on flickr. My pictures came from a family trip a few years ago. Click the comic to enlarge it.

Toondoo
The third comic I created used an internet-based site called toondoo. This site combined the best of the previous two tools and had some additional features. First of all, it was free, and you can save your comic online and access an embed code. Toondo had a large selection of cartoon people, backgrounds, objects, etc. What was neat is that you can also create your own characters right down to their posture, clothing, facial expression, etc. And you can make these characters available to the entire toondo community, thereby adding to the selection of the site.

This site would be useful for my context in the same way as makebeliefscomix. However, given that it is so robust, it might actually be overkill for the simple, dialogue-based strips I wanted. On this site, I made a political cartoon. This has always been something I've wanted to do. I am an avid reader of political cartoons. While there are many sites dedicated to sharing the best political cartoons, this is the site I visit: http://www.cagle.com/politicalcartoons/.

My process for creating this cartoon was to decide first what I wanted to say and then to find the right backgrounds to accommodate my ideas. For the second panel, representing an election ballot, I used a background of a clipboard and a dialogue balloon without the "downspout." I made the woman in the first panel, while the other characters were pre-made. Use the scroll bar below the comic or click on it to see it full.

Screencasting

2009-11-09T11:50:00.002-06:00

Camstudio

I published my podcast last week, so this week I tried a screencast. I used the free camstudio that Rick and Pete referred to in class. It is robust for a free program, and I recommend it. The pop-up text boxes take quite a bit of choreography, a process that would be unnecessary if one used voice instructions. However, there are multiple reasons that I felt like written directions were the ideal accompaniment to the screencast:

This is, after all, a digital writing class. So practice in writing short, concise directions is valuable for teacher and student alike.
My college is loaded with thin clients that often do not function appropriately with sound.
Even if they did, it would be less distracting for all users in a computer lab if the screencast did not employ sound. Headphones could remedy that problem, but I feel the text directions are still more convenient for users.
Also, whereas voice directions might have to be repeated multiple times for the user to comprehend, a short text box can be displayed for an extended period of time to allow the user to “soak” it up.
I also liked the freedom of not having to speak during “dead air,” as some of the processes I demonstrated take a while to load.

I hope you will view my screencast. It’s only 2 minutes. It’s about how to access network applications at my school. The “ghosting” (vapor trails from the cursor) do not occur in the original file that I am using on my network. I hope that is not too annoying for you!

https://netfiles.umn.edu/users/blum0137/Citrix%20via%20PCs.swf?uniq=hzt1kv

File Formats

Camstudio records as a very large windows movie video file (.avi). My two-minute screen cast was a whopping 33MB! However, Camstudio lets you convert to shockwave (.swf), which is a super-compact flash format that shrank the file down to just 2.2MB. At such a small file size, I can choose to host the file on my own company intranet. I tried uploading both the big and small file formats to Media Mill, but it did not recognize either. So my solution was to use the netfiles service that Rick and Pete told us about in class. They said this could be our “go to” storage site once we lose our Medial Mill access. The shockwave file didn’t even make a dent in my 5GB of storage, and I was able to copy a public link to my screencast. To set up your free U of M netfiles account, go to https://netfiles.umn.edu/xythoswfs/webui and follow the prompts. It took less than a minute before I was up and running. Since I started with a finished file codec, I didn’t check if there is anything else available in netfiles other than just storage.

Future Uses

Both screencasting and podcasting are attractive multimedia options, especially compared to video, because they are relatively bandwidth friendly for uploading and downloading. Screencasting would be an ideal assignment for computer students in their helpdesk class and to support their final project (which already required “documentation,” such as a user manual). I could also see Public Speaking students using screencasting to support a demonstration speech. I will continue to develop screencasts for faculty development, in particular for the faculty in-service I am developing as my final project. While I love commoncraft tutorials on youtube, I also enjoy making my own.

A Practical Podcast for My Classmates

2009-11-04T17:56:00.005-06:00

Classmates, this one's for you! I have published a podcast on postsecondary teaching options for secondary teachers. The podcast compares and contrasts secondary and postsecondary teaching contexts, with postsecondary represented by my private two-year college. I consider outreach to potential postsecondary teachers an important function of my personal and professional commitment to college-level instruction. If you have any interest at all in postsecondary instruction, please subscribe to this podcast!

This is the RSS feed for my podcast from media mill:

http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/generateRSS.php?podcast_id=500
music attribution:

dangerous_objects / CC BY 2.5

There is also an RSS feed for my podcast on the menu to the left, which I added as a gadget (thanks, Jerehmy, for the tip!). It's called Postsecondary Teaching Options.

Lessons Learned
Using Audacity to make my mp3 was relatively technical compared to the other tasks we have accomplished this semester. Video editing posed some challenges last week, but fading out an audio soundtrack while fading in my voice felt pretty "high level." Adding bumper music to the end of the podcast was the most challenging aspect of my production. I kept trying to add the ending bumper music to the timeline of the introductory bumper music. Finally, and mercifully, it occurred to me to add another track.

I was pleased with the resulting file. However, I used the lowest quality option in media mill in an effort to keep the file size down since--surprise--my podcast got a little longish. I had so much information I wanted to share!

I did just one take of the recording. I planned it minimally, as the tutorials recommended, in order to keep it conversational. No written notes or rehearsal. Interstingly, I think I spoke at a slower, more deliberate rate than I normally speak. I would be interested to hear from you listeners if the pacing enhanced or detracted from:

Listening enjoyment.
Comprehension.
Retention of information.

Future Applications
For my position as a college administrator, I considered the possibility of podcasting descriptions of vacant faculty positions. However, other colleges could subscribe as well in an effort to keep tabs on me. I suppose they could do that anyway by trolling employment sites (maybe they already do!).

For teaching, the obvious application is to record important class sessions for the benefit of (1) absent students and (2) those who would like to refresh themself on the topic, such as before an exam. The potential downside is that anything technical--such as writing on the board, etc.--would not be ideal in a podcast. Would a video recording of the class be better? If using a web site, such as Ning, one could include handouts, notes, etc., in addition to the audio file. To make it a true podcast, the class session would have to be published. For the teacher recording classes infrequently, simply providing an audio file to students might suffice instead.

Skype
Skype was both easy to set up and use and full of potential. I would be somewhat leery of creating a podcast and then playing it in class. That, to me, smacks of the seventh grade history teacher who tape recorded his first class of the day and simply hit rewind and play for his remaining five hours of class. However, add a Skype interview with an expert or exciting guest, and the teacher is bringing in outside content that can be justified.

In the context of the private, two-year business college, recording Skype interviews with alumni working in their field would make a "guest speaker" a more frequent option. It could be particularly convenient for the alumni, especially those with great jobs who work out of the commuting area. For some of our programs, students must complete an externship, and students are required at specified intervals to return to campus to share their experiences so far with other students. If the externship takes place out of state, the externship coordinator could record Skype calls (with permission) with the student for sharing with the group. The externship coordinator could also podcast the meetings to which the out-of-state externs could subscribe.

The conference call on Skype also has possibilities for interesting audio discussions. I wonder if that would take a little more "coaching" so that everyone gets adequate air time. I listened to a podcast on edtech talk that sounded clumsy. I know that's supposed to be part of the "charm," but it can detract from learning somewhat. In particular, the producer did not account for the female voice, as the software appears to allow. I think I would plan an agenda for such a conference, deviations from which would be fine. I would also plan to spend considerably more time editing for clarity/volume.

Videos and Writing Instruction

2009-10-28T18:24:00.004-05:00

My Short Video
In keeping with the theme of literature/poetry, my video is a literary analysis. But it's not what you might expect. I gave the star of the video the choice of making any movie, such as acting out a popular story. This was the star's idea--not mine! Makes me proud.

I do not have easy access to iMovie 9, so I am posting my rough movie edited in class. I was able to accomplish the following effects, as you'll see in the video:

Title page
Transitions
Image stabilization feature (I learned this through Rick's iMovie tutorial link)
Sound (forest)
Credits

The obvious shortcomings are:

Text too small (I'll use bigger font size next time!)
Using a digital camera (not a video camera) that has poor resolution

FYI: The title is The Wolf In Folk Tales: Fact or Fiction?
The credit at the end identifies the videos player, named "Ave" (pronounced with a hard A, not the abbreviation for Avenue!)

http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embed/48362 (link to video if embed doesn't work)

VideoAnt
I could see the benefits of using VideoAnt for my professional context. I would have faculty videotape themselves teaching, as they already do for our Instruction Improvement Project. Then the videos would be imported into VideoAnt for others--and the instructor--to watch and comment on what they like and suggestions for improvement. It might be more meaningful for the instructor to watch the video and smultaneously read comments for a real-time interpretation of their meaning.

Digital Literature
I visited a number of the digital video sites and watched some interesting, thought-provoking pieces. And a few that fell short for me. This link is haunting and based on actual events. It is a keen example of using the digital medium. It requires a download, which I did without any harm to my computer (yet). This creepy little animation fits in exactly with my own video theme!

Role-playing Online

2009-10-24T12:20:00.003-05:00

My Character
It is safe to say that I threw myself into my role as Kyle Krowten (network spelled backwards), a 17-year old digerati arguing against the notion that the web (as represented by google) is making us stupid.

I intended to create a persona that others would recognize as both young and a scholastic underachiever, which is why I used John Belushi with the "College" sweatshirt from Animal House as my avatar. I felt most of the audience would recognize him as a lazy, slovenly, trouble-maker without significant academic credentials.

On my profile page, I tied in references to Animal House with current teen behavior. For example, I uploaded Bluto in a toga as my supposed "senior picture" and talked about how I was defying my parents by being online. In my posting, I used teenager slang, mostly dude, bro; monikers for my elders that demonstrated a general lack of respect (i.e. teacher dude); and salty humor (i.e. students are from Mars teachers are from Uranus) to frame my character as immature.

Digital Native
Framing my character as a slacker gave me room to impress others by making some thoughtful points. I used the tension of teacher-student to advance the idea that Kyle Krowten is normal and the educational system is the outcast. I made vague references and included links to Marc Prensky's work on digital natives and digital immigrants. Most, however, I just tried to represent my interpretation of Prensky's thesis that Kyle (digital native) grew up with the Internet and web 2.0, but the teachers (digital immigrants) didn't. I wrote about how the teachers seemed to be from foriegners who did not speak our language.

I think my character's immaturity worked against me. I did not feel that others read or referenced Prensky or that I was able to overcome perceptions of Kyle as Bluto. The way the role-play unfolded also worked against me in that many more contrarians participated in the early role-play than allies. They also (justifiably) attacked my persona more than my specific ideas. This was fun but I may have intellectually stunted my own development in positioning my character as a slacker. I found myself actually revising or entirely erasing potential posts because the seemed to intellectual. That self-limiting behavior may not have been warranted.

Ethos
I think Google's CEO had tremendous ethos in the role play because of his persona's stature. I thought the wittiness of his posts also boosted his profile. Indiana Jones also had credibility because of his persona as a world-famous archeologist and because of how prolifically he posted! The rivalry between those two helped frame many of the threads that emerged. I appreciated early participants like Dr. Love and his IHOP anecdotes. This helped frame the conversation as visceral, practical, and observable and not solely academic. I thought that made the role play more fun. I was the first to post. I don't know how my initial post helped to frame the discussion, but I represented Kyle totally in character and used humor while trying to make the Prensky points noted above.

I think social standing contributed to power in the role play. While Kyle was very influential in the thread because he was recognizable and an easy lightening rod for criticism, I don't feel like a slacker student was powerful.

Learning Through Role Playing
I did not believe my character's position when I began the role play. I absolutely gained true appreciation for the digital native/digital immigrant schism in our education system as a result of my research and participation in the role play. I also came to believe the thesis not that google or the web is making us stupid but that these tools are making read and think less "deeply." Just trying to keep up with the feverish paste of posts and chats--even before the final day in which we were all "live"--made me skim more and do my thinking while writing, not while reading.

I think this latter point is vital to my understanding of the actual issue (is the web making us stupid) and how digital writing can be used in the writing and thinking process. It shows me that writing for the web is part of pre-writing, idea generation, and learning much more than it is about formal, polished, "finished" writing. I do not believe I would have come to this understanding without participation in this particular role play on this particular topic.

My conclusion that this specific role play was particularly formative to my beliefs about digital writing leads me to believe the potential value of role plays is tremendous in influencing students' understanding of a topic. Role-playing made the topic something I could experience and not just ponder or even think deeply about. What I should also mention is that the role play was one of the most exciting, exhilirating, and enjoyable learning experiences I can ever recall. I was not a digerati prior. I think I developed my fast-surfing skills more in that one week than I had since I first tried the Internet with Mosaic in a box in 1995.

It also scared me as I started to become a skimmer and a schemer. I became a little too goofy at the end of the role play, as many of us expressed in the chat that our brains were fried!

Business Writing Applications
A role play would be ideal for technology students studying to be IT professionals. They could role play service requests, including live chat as the non-techie with the broken computer and the computer technician. The former could try to befuddle the latter by being clueless, while the latter must try to keep his/her cool and avoid jargon.

For all programs at my college, I could see role playing for an entire class with the teacher as manager and students as employees. This is a fiction we already try to perpetrate. The online role play allows for more practice in the written language aspect of this fiction. Students at my college practice the role more in f-2-f contexts than in writing. And their writing tends to be in finite bursts (a particular assignment) and not sustained throughout a term (or even a longer project) as could be accomplished with role playing. The teacher and other students could also play a client/customer as in the computer scenario described above. This would also work for our Hospitality program, with hotel/travel customer, and in Graphic Design with customers who can provide digital critiques of the student designers.

One of the college's primary missions is to give students an understanding and appreciation for the world of work. Role playing online could further this goal tremendously. Students have to think about the role in order to portray themselves appropriately.

Encouraging Digital Writing for Computer Students with Wikis

2009-10-11T20:34:00.003-05:00

My First Wiki
I feel fortunate that I have a lead computer programming teacher who wants his students to engage in digital writing. He comes from the IT industry and fully understands the value of written communication for computer professionals. Especially for two-year college graduates, strong communication skills are vital in this down job market.

To support his efforts, and that of his colleague who teaches network management, I created this wiki: http://mbccomputers.pbworks.com/.

As you will see if you visit the mbccomputers wiki, the sidebar is organized by the courses our students take, which are discreet IT subjects (Windows XP, Java, Linux, etc.). Sidebar topics are listed chronologically from the first class of the year to the last class of the year. This intuitive structure will make use of the wiki easier for students and teacher(s).

Wikis for IT Students
A wiki seems particularly well-suited for computer helpdesk topics for many reasons:

My school's network has particular quirks to it, so helpdesk topics can prevent others from experiencing well-documented stresses and pitfalls.
Some problems may be wider or deeper than the first collaborator recognizes, so users can update/edit/augment entries.
Many companies use some sort of centralized repository of IT help topics so that this experience will prepare students for the workplace.
Practicing writing for technically savvy and not technically savvy audiences is vital for a successful career in IT support positions.
If students visit the wiki first when they run into roadblocks, this will create more self-reliance than just putting up their hand. And if they find useful material at the class wiki, they will likely return. If they don't find useful material, the teacher will need to encourage them to make an entry.

Potential Challenge
The potential challenges I see regard getting the wiki off the ground. For example, getting students to share their knowledge for the betterment of the community may be a value shift for them. Students are often looking out for their own interests. The teacher may need to reward students for adding to the wiki.

I am hopeful that once entries are made and edited over and over and over in the course of several terms and years, the notion of "ownership" will fade away--subsumed by the pride in identifying a new or updated solution to a problem. So once the wiki is off the ground, it should take on a life of its own. If users continue to access the wiki even once they are in the workplace, then we will know we have created something special.

Getting students into the habit of using it while we are starting will also be an initial challenge. The teacher will have to be prepared to remind students to contribute to the wiki when they solve a problem or refer to the wiki when they run into a roadblock.

2009-10-04T19:48:00.001-05:00

Digital Writing with Flickr & Voicethread

2009-10-04T18:32:00.005-05:00

Flickr
I had never used flickr before this class. I toyed with it briefly when the course readings mentioned it in the first week of class. The latest chapter in Richardson was very helpful in understanding the logic of the site. I understand that people could be drawn to writing about an image. I was surprised, though, in browsing the site that a number of discussion threads are purely social and did not even involve an image. For example, given my interest in New Mexico, I looked for photos. But what I found were people going to New Mexico on vacation and asking for recommendations on restaurants, lodging, etc. This seemed quite odd to me, given that I thought flickr would be a photo site!

Picnik
I wanted to upload my own images for this assignment. However, I realized that I did not have photo editing software on my computer. Fortunately, this week's reading in Richardson mentions the web site: http://www.picnik.com/. I used this site to edit my photos. In case you want to do this, here are some helpful hints.

You don't even have to register for this site, and it's totally free. The first step is actually to join flickr. By first joining flickr and linking your flickr account to picnik (picnik asks you if you want to do this), your edited pictures miraculously appear in flickr! Thanks, Richardson, for the advice!
Once you've linked to flickr, you can upload photos. Since I was working with old film pictures, I had to scan them first. One tip: scan a whole bunch at once. Once you upload the file to picnik, you can divide up the photos through its easy editor. This saves you the time of having to scan each individual photo!

Slideshow: The American Southwest
My slideshow represents the American Southwest. Given our class theme of spaces and places, I chose photos around the theme of contrast.

You'll notice the first photo sets this tone. It is both a gateway to a beginning (looking through a door-like arch) and a huge contrast between the red rock and the evergreen forest beyond. The Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands pictures look like they could be on the moon! The mountains and canyons show contrasts in light, color, and seasons.

Adding the Native American sites allowed me to showcase that some of the Southwest's wonders are human made too. From ancient history to living history, these dwellings evoke the oneness with the land that used to be a way of life in the Southwest. The bison represent what white settlers have done to the land and its inhabitants, often treating the indigenous inhabitants like animals.

The sunsets are a colorful contrasts and a fitting way to say goodbye to my first flickr slideshow. I hope you enjoy the photos and the story they tell:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43170540@N07/sets/72157622384265737/show/

Teaching with Flickr
Visual literacy is a key literacy. In my courses from First-Year Composition to Business Writing, I have had students write about magazine ads and other "staged" visual representations. I ask them to interpret what they see. For example:

Why were the colors chosen for the ad?
Analyze any text.
Why were the particular people chosen?

Flickr would allow a teacher to upload an ad or other visual, or choose one from its commons collection. In a literature class, writing about a painting from the time period of the piece could force students to reflect on history. After studying literature, students could find value in looking at a work of art representing the story. When I was an undergraduate, we did this with paintings that represented Greek myths. The final exam was a slideshow (old-fashioned slide projector!) of images, and students had to write about the myth from viewing the slideshow.

Voicethread

Voicethread was fun. As with my vlog, I didn't script anything. But I knew what I wanted to say in general. Two or three takes (or more when the phone rang during recording!) was all it took to make it sound good. The tutorial http://www.videosurf.com/video/silli%27s-voicethread-tutorial-for-k12-educators-12188608 from the Ning was gold. I think it is neat how you can have voicethread call you to record your posts! I went out and spent $30 on a Logitech USB headset. The tutorial's directions for using a microphone helped.

Here is my voicethread: it's my flickr slideshow with some of the points I make above about the American Southwest:

http://voicethread.com/share/645951/

My First Exposure to Vlogs & Digital Mapping

2009-09-27T13:21:00.056-05:00

MY REVIEW OF THE WALLSTRIP VLOG "THE HOLLYWOOD RECESSION"

I found a vlog series that seems to take advantage of the fact that it is on the Internet. Keep in mind, I don't have cable television, so a vlog with a few swear words and suggestive images gets easy laughs from me! There was no warning, however, that the content was adult-oriented. Perhaps they felt buffeted from young eyes because the theme of the vlog series is investing.

Called Wallstrip (a play on Wall Street with "strip" implying both a comic strip or digital short and a cheap laugh with an opening montage of a streaker being arrested), this vlog takes serious topics and gives an edgy twist to them. The particular vlog post I am reviewing is called "Hollywood Recession." http://www.bnet.com/2422-17910_23-214175.html

I liked how this post used visuals to create plays on the vlogger's words. For example, in discussing the recession, the vlogger talks about being stuck under a pile of bills. The over-her-shoulder visual (think evening news or Saturday Night Live's fake news) to support her point is an NFL player being tackled by a crowd of Buffalo Bills players. Another clever visual was a reference to an Arctic cruise that showed Tom Cruise lying amid a phalanx of penguins. The vlogger's jokes and the visuals fly by pretty quickly, so the viewer must stay alert. I liked this fast-paced style of humor. It kept me intently interpreting the visuals and gleefully anticipating the next pun. It reminded me of the "how to" videos we watched on youtube where the hand-drawn pictures animated the speaker's words. Except this vlog was "laugh out loud" funny.

This vlog seems to have young, affluent web users as its audience. The vlogger is young, and the jokes are fast enough to appeal mostly to those "quick on their...brains." Since it's an investing vlog with Wall Street at its heart, it could be aiming even more specifically for a New York investment community audience. CBS appears to be behind the vlog, so the vlog might be aiming for a subset of the CBS Marketwatch investment news followers. Sort of like a Daily Show take on investing news.

MY FIRST VLOG

I did not attempt to replicate the successes of the vlog above. In my first vlog attempt I took 3 takes to achieve an acceptable vlog. What was wrong with the first two? The first one did not have the top of my head in it (some might consider that an improvement rather than a detriment--defer your judgment until you watch my vlog); the second attempt was interrupted by a thirsty spouse.

I kept it relatively spontaneous. No script. No rehearsal (except two bad takes). In fact, the third contained content not found in the "outtakes" (which I deleted rather than offered as "extras").

If my vlog does not show up below (it has been cranky today), you can either view it on the Ning or by following this link: http://mediamill.cla.umn.edu/mediamill/embed/44263

FINAL PROJECT IDEA DIGITAL MAP

Below is the digital map I have created to represent an idea for my final project. I am contemplating a faculty in-service training that is a "greatest hits" of this class. The benefit I see for users of digital maps (mine is from bubbl.us) is relational. I have typically been an outliner, but the digital map allowed me to show relationships that would be challenging and confusing with an outline. In particular, if you look at my map below, you'll see that my presentation will have two main points:

Organizing the web
Blogs

However, look at the blog bubble and you'll see that while it is a main point of the presentation, it is also a subpoint of RSS feeds, which is a subpoint to main topic Organizing the web? Sound confusing? That's the beauty of digital mapping: the map communicates the relationship better than traditionally written formats. This type of idea mapping tool would be equally beneficial for students and instructors to show relationships of ideas. They can make bubbles of key terms first--and then make connections to organize, re-organize, show relationships. Having students make the digital map and then create an outline--and vice versa--would be useful to give them strategies for organizing ideas. They can see which approach they prefer or could use each (or both) as desired. Some of the digital mapping tools will make an outline out of a user's map, though I think there is value in having students learn to translate between the two approaches.

Please feel free to comment on my digital map for the faculty in-service. I will be updating it as the class goes on and would appreciate knowing your perception of the relationships between bubbles! (Note: you can manipulate the digital map by clicking + and - to change size, and you can drag the map around to view it better.)

Search Strategies and Putting it All Together

2009-09-20T19:02:00.003-05:00

I feel extremely comfortable with database research. Using the fruits of database research, I have written a number of 25+ page papers in the last three years of my doctoral studies at the U of M. Prior to that, I authored a 100+ page master's thesis. Outside academic work, I have authored institutional self-studies for accreditation, numerous faculty in-service trainings, and for a class project last year I researched and created an Instructor Improvement Program based on self and peer observations through digital video recordings of teaching sessions. I implemented this program last spring with my faculty and achieved positive outcomes.

The fruits of my database searches tend to include journals accessible online. Many are digitized copies of hard copy journals, while some are exclusively e-journals. Not all journals exist digitally, so I have also relied to a small extent (increasingly smaller as time has gone on) on hard copy journals (some good 1990's content has still not been digitized) and hard copy academic books. A few books have existed digitally, which is a siginficant time-saver because you can typically perform keyword searches within them. I think many of us jump at the chance to access sources that are electronic, especially because of the convenience factor (not having to go to the library). After all, if the same content exists on my laptop as on the shelf of the library, I am not going to make the extra trip. But I think we sometimes also shy away from a hard copy book because of the lack of easy search capability (though a good index is easy to search) among other perceived inconveniences. As long as I continue to find relevant content in a hard copy book, I won't shy away from them.

For researching "Education, higher" as a subject (from U of MN library website), my top three databases in order are:

Academic Search Premier (Ebsco)
Education Full Text (Wilson Web)
ERIC

The most effective strategy I have for finding relevant research is this: If I already have at least one good source, I find it in one of the above databases and look at what keywords it is "tagged" under. This is a similar process to what we are learning about diigo, delicious, and flickr--except that the databases are taxonomized (not folksonomized). Once you hit on a good academic search term, you can quickly multiply your relevant finds. However, cross-disciplinary research makes this particularly tricky! My research focus is "Professional social skills." But that's my term. In Education parlance, it's "soft skills." In Sociology parlance, it's "social skills." In Economics, I have found relevant results in "non-technical skills." And the list goes on. I am excited to see how the folksonomies of the social networking sites referenced above will challenge my thinking, searching, and tagging.

For my final project, I am again toying with something to benefit my faculty, which in turn will benefit my students. I think a mini version of this class--Digital Writing with Web 2.0: A Crash Course (I have only a few hours for a typical in-service!)--is one possibility; a greatest hits of this class, if you will. If I cover a range of topics, faculty members can focus on what they find most interesting or of greatest potential. As tends to happen in our tight-knit faculty, instructors will teach each other how to use the tools they have found useful. Other ideas include focusing on one or two of what I will determine to be the most vital digital writing tools--so far RSS feeds (especially for blogs) and diigo are leading contenders. I have often found benefit in a more focused presentation that allows everyone to master one or two new skills. Then I could always expand the learning at a future in-service. It is possible that I could find a particularly exciting topic for a class unit, such as resume writing or writing business letters, that incorporated a particular set of digital writing tools. E-portfolios for each student would be a particularly ambitious but useful outcome as well. I don't know if just narrowed down or "broadened up" my choices. I will continue to ruminate on the ideas and reflect on them in future posts.

A Plan to Use Blogs in a Career College

2009-09-12T15:03:00.006-05:00

I am an administrator at a private two-year college focusing on entry-level career development. Our students take primarily skill-oriented courses, with some optional liberal arts "generals" near the end of their programs. As regards writing, our students learn workplace writing (business English, business reports, etc.). In thinking how blogs might be useful for our students' writing development, I think I might look for blogs for our students to read and respond to before we would start them writing their own blogs. This advice seems to be consistent with what I've read in Beach et al Teaching Writing Using Blogs, Wikis... and Richardson's Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts...

If we can identify career-focused blogs in our students' fields of study, the students can learn more about what it is like in the "real world." I would envision having them write weekly summaries of what they have read, responded to, and if their responses were responded to. These summaries would be turned in to teachers or posted on our intranet for other students to consume.

Once we got the feeling students were acting constructively, we could dip our toes into private blog territory, in which we see only each other's blogs. We could invite some hand-selected professionals to join our private universe to read and respond. If that went well, I could see the benefit of opening our blogs up publicly. Though my students are college age (i.e. legal adults), I favor anonymous posting. The college is acutely aware of the permanence of students' online footprint, and would want students to be able to explore and learn without worrying about sullying their future employment prospects.

Here are a few blogs I've found that have potential for student use:

Office Professional: http://www.theofficeprofessional.com/wordpress/?prod_abbv=top
The Professional Assistant: http://www.theprofessionalassistant.net/

I hope to find blogs suitable for future entry-level employees of these fields:

Accounting
Administrative Assistant
Computer Helpdesk
Computer Programming
Computer Network Manager
Graphic Design
Hospitality (Hotel)
Legal Secretary
Medical Assistantant
Paralegal
Travel Agent