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My Digital Story

ETEC 565 – My Digital Story on Prezi

Selecting the Social Media
When choosing the media, I first remembered seeing a digital story of another peer in ETEC565 in previous years. She was a colleague, a great friend, that I worked closely with in teaching over the last 4 years. I was very impressed with her digital story using VoiceThread. She was a great narrator, and the photos were well chosen. However, although I wanted to tell a similar story, I knew I wasn’t a great narrator. My enthusiasm lies in photos, and I decided to tell my story through a photoblog.

In another previous course, I was introduced to the presentation tool: Prezi. I have then kept this tool in mind when teaching, but never really finding the right time to use it. Some of the reasons may be that my Internet connection in China was slow, the tool was a bit time consuming to put together, and I just didn’t have the right story.

Now that my MET is almost over, I decided to give Prezi one last try. I had a story to tell – of how I got here – and I wanted to use it.

My Story
I had a lot of fun creating my story with Prezi. I first went through years and years of my photo, selecting ones that I wanted to show. I enjoyed my journey of pursuing Teaching as a career. The many teaching opportunities I had impacts the way I teach and think about teaching. I decided to log the most important turning points for me and placed it in a concept map manner on the Prezi board.

Next, I created folders to file my pictures of China, Japan, Mexico, Quebec, Dalian, and Beijing. It was not easy as some photos have been lost throughout the years. I then placed them around the skeleton story I have woven onto the Prezi board so I can choose the ones that I want to share in my story.

As mentioned before, I am not comfortable to add my own voice to my story. Instead, I borrowed the voice of the Co-op student who won the top prize in creating an SFU Co-op video on YouTube. I also told the story through text. I tried to make my text simple. I chose short phrases as I do not like reading pages and pages of text myself. I wanted to keep it in the manner of a PowerPoint presentation.

In the end, I really enjoyed the process of stringing the story together. It is one that I would like to keep and retell. I also like the features of the Prezi program – the ability to zoom in and out, the ability to change photo sizes and text sizes, and the ability to twist and turn, to keep the readers interested. I also like the option of having the Prezi audience view the presentation “automatically” and “manually” by hand. The one thing that I will probably go back and change is the photo sizes. I will probably have to go into Photoshop to make the files smaller so they will load faster onto Prezi. But all in all, I think it is a successful program, and I will even consider adding sound (music) to it in the future.

Teaching Value
I think Prezi is a powerful tool to tell a story. I just haven’t figured out how to incorporate it into a classroom yet. One of the options of this tool is that the viewer and copy the original and edit it on their own. I think it could be used as a short story presentation, or even in creating their own poems using a similar structure. However, I feel that TIME is the most important factor. I would generate a list of what should be expected in a class presentation. If the assignment has a limit to how many slides (paths) a presentation can have, and a word limit on each “slide”, then this may help guide the students in creating a presentation suitable for the class.

I feel that this tool can help students improve their presentation skills, especially ones that are weaker in spoken presentation (like myself). In a classroom setting, students also have the opportunity to speak while presenting – for students who are strong speakers. I would definitely like to incorporate this tool in my classroom someday, or at least, introduce this as another option for students to present. It would certainly be more interesting than the standard PowerPoint show.

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Ideas for Moodle Activities

I have been thinking about what sort of Moodle activities to include in the Moodle course site.  I think I would like to include both synchronous and asynchronous web tools for students to share their ideas with each other.

Asynchronous Activity

Icebreakers are probably the easiest to begin with.  Students can write their own introductions and then add a video/audio clip of themselves as well.  Students can then comment and discuss about each other’s post.  In Moodle, I like the option in Forums where students must make an initial post before being allowed to view others’ posts.  As well, students can only post once but allowed to comment on others as much as they want.  This option allows all students a fair chance to write and post ideas without being worried that they are “copying” someone else… or have students worried that someone else “copied” their work.

Synchronous Activity

The teacher (me) can also set up a live chat for a certain time, and all students can participate in real time.  I’m not sure if Moodle is capable of  synchronous activities yet.  Another area that I worry about is uploading large files that may exceed the maximum attachment file.  This may become a problem as video and audio clips sometimes are quite large.  More things to explore and find out about!

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Synchronous vs Asynchronous

I see both advantages and disadvantages in having synchronous and asynchronous tools in the classroom.  Personally, since I am teaching overseas, synchronous chats and meetings with other educators in MET (mostly from North America and others from different parts of the world) do not work well for me due to differences in time zones. Otherwise, face-to-face and video chats are great ways to communicate and get things done.  I remember using Elluminate for one of my MET projects and we were able to create an outline and delegate the work among the members within 10 minutes.  We then worked on our parts of the project individually and presented our ideas onto a Google Document (asynchronous tool).

Asychronous tools, although lacking immediate feedback for the user, does the trick better.  It does not require all members to be available at the same time (very hard to coordinate if not in the same location or city), and it allows participants more time to think about what is said before making thoughtful responses.

As a language teacher, I feel that asynchronous tools, such as Wiki and forums are great for students to build their confidence in writing – reducing the pressure of needing to perform and present right away.

However, the tools above can make the classroom atmosphere seem too distant.  Better solutions would be to include tools such as Live Chat, Wimba, and other tools that allow for multimedia.  Students would be able to discuss through voice and visuals, rather than just text.  The disadvantage would be finding places that can host larger video or audio files.

For my Moodle project, I am interested in adding both synchronous and asynchronous lessons and activities for students to work on.  Hopefully it would make the content material much more interactive and make learning a more enjoyable process.

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More on Assessment

After reading Gibbs & Simpson, I feel that assessment of coursework is fairer than one final exam.  I believe that the work and effort that students put into their work should be taken into account when giving them their final mark.  For example, I don’t believe that the provincial exam should be worth 40% of the entire grade for English 12.  And even it was, I don’t believe that there should be a required 15% maximum deviation between the course mark and the provincial mark.  The course is so much more than just multiple choices and 3 essays.  What happens to marking the participation and the discussion in class?  What about students learning to develop their thoughts on certain topics?  What about presenting information in a creative way through multimedia (as per requirement on the PLO – prescribed learning outcomes)?  Where does this come in on the exam?  Just because it is difficult to mark various media products on the provincial exam doesn’t mean that keeping it simple is an accurate assessment of the student’s ability and knowledge of the entire English 12 curriculum.

Assessments that Worked:

Writing Portfolio

I think this is a great way to assess student’s growth in their writing.  The students should be able to look back and see their improvement.  And if each piece of writing has some feedback to help the student to progress, then it is the student’s responsibility to review and reflect on their own writing to improve their work.  It will become apparent to the student if the same comments are given on each assignment that they have not put in the effort to improve.

Timely Feedback

According to Gibbs & Simpson, feedback should be immediate or at least soon after the assignment has been collected.  However, immediate feedback is difficult, especially if students have written several pieces that week.  I will always prioritize and give constructive feedback on the most important piece of writing.  It is sometimes heartbreaking when students do not read the comments and just put the assignment aside.  Usually, I do see the marked work inside their binders, but I have also seen work from other classes that only provide marks with no feedback shoved inside the desk or thrown into the trashcan.  I think feedback should acknowledge the students’ achievements on their work, their efforts, and gentle advices on how they can improve.

Relating this to Moodle

I think the feedback on the Moodle quiz is great for self-study.  I remember doing something similar with a Business course that I took in my undergraduate years.  I followed the textbook and had the website quiz as supplement to assess my knowledge of the material.  It was a very good way to review before the exam.  Another advantage for immediate feedback from Moodle quizzes is to alleviate the stress from teachers marking the same quizzes manually.  When these questions are answered automatically, teachers can then focus on the harder ones that do require their knowledge, expertise, and judgement.  However, although I feel that the ability to provide immediate feedback is advantageous, this method should only be for students to review and self-assess their knowledge on the material and not be used as a final exam.

Challenges with Assessment

Blogs

Blogs are hard to assess when marks are seen as subjective, especially in a subject like English.  How does one go about assessing Blogs write-ups?  The purpose of having students write blogs was for them to receive immediate feedback from their peers (rather than just from one person, the teacher).  Blogging was used to encourage students to practice writing, be reflective, share their opinions with peers, and also follow criteria.  Students received guidelines of what is appropriate and what constructive feedback should look like.  Overall, the blog activity was successful in the sense that the goals for students to write more and share opinions were met.  Giving students a mark though, was much harder, and an assessment rubric was used.

Presentations

Assessment on group presentations was always difficult – for both the students and the teacher.  In my class, even though I tell my students that I focus on what they “think” about the material more than how technological savvy they are in their presentation, students still spend more time on the “wow” factor than the “content”.   Even when we go over the assessment rubric for the assignment, with content as the bulk of the marks, the students will always be disappointed.  They complain about how the marks do not reflect the time they spent on making the video.  When students see that their effort does not generate a higher mark, they are less motivated or innovative in their next presentation.  Is that what I really want?

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Reflections on Assessment

Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning
~ Graham Gibbs & Claire Simpson

This article reminded me of last year, when I invited my former student, now a 2nd year student at a university in the States, to speak as a guest in my English 12 class. I was shocked when he discussed his perception of University life and the assessment procedures in his courses. It resonates very closely to Gibbs & Simpson’s article and their discussion on how students view the assessment procedures at University.

My prized student’s first piece of advice was, “It’s okay to skip lectures in University”.    My heart dropped when I heard it, and my student quickly glanced my way and added, “But of course, it’s best not too!” However, I encouraged him to explain and this is what he said:

Lectures in University are not important. The tutorials are not important either, unless there are marks for attendance. If not, just make sure you are in your tutorial or lecture when an assignment is due, when there is a pop quiz, and when there is a midterm or a final.

All important notes can be found online. And some professors are nice enough to record the entire lecture and post them online as well. In addition, what you really need to do is join some student clubs that have past exams and midterms. If you study from these, then you will do fine.

The best experience I’ve had so far is exploring the city. I highly recommend this! Of course, (another glance), you should always make sure you don’t stay out too late….

Another student studying in BC, said:

In my school, the most important lesson that I’ve learned is that everything is marked on a “curve”. So, as long as you’re not at the bottom, you will be fine. It is impossible to be at the top, so don’t worry about it.

My last student guest speaker, studying in Alberta, said:

What I learned is… you don’t really need to read the textbook. Just listen to what the professor is focusing on, and then you will know exactly what’s on the test.

Although I was happy the students came back for a visit, I was disappointed with how my top students perceived university life, whether or not it was true. When Gibbs & Simpson discussed similar reactions from university students, I realized that this reaction may be more common than I thought.

Perhaps assessment in education needs to be updated, just like everything else. The standards and ways of assessment need to reflect what is being taught in class, and what is expected of students, in regards to knowledge and skills, and what they should walk away with after the course is over.

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Exploring WebCT/Vista

This week, we explored the functions in WebCT/Vista. I created a sandbox so I can play around with the tools in WebCT/Vista. I also tested out the options of using the Calendar and the Discussion boxes. I like the option of being able to “build” the course and understand how teachers and professors have worked with this LMS in the past. There is definitely a lot more flexibility in this mode than in the student mode. Alright – back to more exploring!

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Building a Moodle Site

Building a Moodle site has been challenging so far. I have explored the many functions of the site but am still trying to get a feel for how I want my “digital classroom” to look. I want to build a fully functional, self-contained English 12 classroom – with the exception of the teacher marking and monitoring students’ work within the course.

I predict a lot of exploring and work, but I think it will be all worth it in the end. =) Stay tuned!

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DVD Authoring

This week, we had an interesting discussion about using DVDs in teaching. My experience with DVD usually relate to backing up my laptop information or burning photos for my friends. If I was making a DVD for school, it would be uploading files of previous lesson plans or video clips for colleagues to use in the classrooms. My most recent DVD for school was the Orientation movie that I created for new students and their parents interested in studying at our school. The DVD was then kept by the administrative staff for whenever they needed it. I have never really thought about burning a DVD for my classroom.

I guess the reasons I never made a DVD for my classroom was because I had the convenience of plugging in my laptop into the main computer in the classroom. I could show students the presentations, video clips, and lectures prepared through my laptop – saving the time needed to create a DVD. It was also more cost efficient. When students needed to present, they also had the option of plugging in their laptops as well. The other times when I would use a DVD was to show a movie to the class. And of course, I would use the original DVD rather than a copied version.

Overall, with the right technology in the classroom, I would prefer to bypass the process of creating my own DVD for the class. On a side note, I have recently seen iDVD used to create a photo/video DVD for my friend’s wedding and I loved the features of the professional looking layouts available. So, for personal purposes, I would definitely create DVDs . However, for academic purposes, I am up for exploring options of creating DVDs in the classroom for future use … perhaps videotaping student performances or skits in the classroom or performances in school-wide presentations or assemblies? If I create a DVD for my classroom, I would like the DVD to incorporate activities that will allow students to actively participate while watching.

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LMS – Learning Management Systems

Experience with Blackboard, Vista, and WebCT:
My first experience with WebCT was through Distance Education at Simon Fraser University. I don’t remember much about the experience except that assignments were dropped off into the Assignment Box when it was due. There were usually 2 to 4 assignments per course. Perhaps there were some discussions online, but they are now a blur.

However, the online learning experience with MET is quite different. The modules are interactive and engaging. Conversations and group work have made it easier to meet and get to know peers. Although face-to-face time is limited, the atmosphere is a lot warmer than previous distance education courses. This is probably due to the newer technologies that involve audio and video interactions (synchronous and asynchronous), in addition to text based discussions. The courses I enjoyed the most are the ones that utilizes most of the functions in Blackboard: Discussion Board, Chat, Mail, Announcements, Learning Modules, Assignments, etc. When courses are well designed with specific instructions for students to follow, learning online can be effective and enjoyable.

Downfall with LMS:
In some courses, the challenge with using LMS such as Vista to deliver the course is that it has limitations. To compensate for these limitations, professors and colleagues will provide links to articles and websites found outside the LMS and bring them into the discussions. This is not much of a problem. However, the need to monitor discussions (due to group presentations or experimentation with new media) on other sites can bring much confusion and frustration. It is hard enough to keep up with Vista and the never-ending posts-to-be-read, but to also keep updated on a second site…. this calls for good time management skills!

Experience with Moodle:
Moodle offers many functions that are easy to use. It could be set up to deliver an entire course with its many functions. Previous experience with Moodle was a group project in another course. It was overwhelming to learn to use Moodle in a short period of time. Our group decided to put together a Grade 6/7 class – with each member responsible for creating a unit for different subjects. It was a lot of fun pooling together ideas. I especially liked the webquests, virtual museums, games, and other activities that we included in our “classroom”. I am looking forward in trying out more functions and possibly a warmer layout of my “classroom” this time in ETEC 565. Stay tuned!

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SECTIONS

This week, we explored ways of evaluating technology through Bates & Poole’s framework: SECTIONS.

The breakdown for SECTIONS is as follows:
S – Students
E – Ease of Use
C – Cost
T – Teaching and Learning
I – Interactivity
O – Organization
N – Novelty
S – Speed

In general, this is a good initial evaluation to assess the need for the new technology. It will work well for all grades, but I feel that it is more useful for the secondary level students to post-secondary students. Teachers and administrators can both use this framework as it covers multiple perspectives in choosing the right technology.

Thinking about my school, I agree that students should be a priority when choosing the technology. It is important that the technology is specifically chosen according to the needs of our students to support their learning and not using technology for the sake of using technology. For our school, we have an ongoing battle with the students in trying to eliminate technology in the classroom. However, I feel it is time to embrace some technology and put them to good academic use. It is inevitable that each student will have their mobile phone or their ipod with them. It is also inevitable that they will have some sort of electronic translator, in addition to their paper dictionary. As well, most students have some basic knowledge of how computers and laptops work. Therefore, I think it is time to figure out how to BEST incorporate these media tools in classroom projects, making them more effective rather than disruptive in the classroom.

In saying this, I am not encouraging cellphone usage or text messaging in the classroom. I want my students to be aware that it is inappropriate to use these functions during lessons and lectures. However, rather than confiscating these devices (which will cause students to be upset the entire class), my goal is to prepare a lesson where they would be more engaged with the material at hand and not with their devices. This may also include using these devices in some way. More thoughts on this later.

Overall, I think SECTIONS is a good way to assess the necessity of certain technology in the classroom. Now I need to find an assessment tool to measure the effectiveness of using the technology in the classroom. Is the effort to incorporate technology into the lesson to replace the traditional method worth it?

Bates, A. W. and Poole, G. (2003) Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated.

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