Faculty Guest Post: Prerecorded Lectures To Free Up Classtime

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Mendi Benigni

Our guest blogger this week is Jennifer Baker in the Philosophy department.  Jennifer talks about how she has used Echo 360 to pre-record her lectures to free up for of her in-class time.  Echo 360 is a desktop capture application that allows faculty to record their computer screens and their voice/image to create a video recorded online lecture.

The expectation that we develop research usually involves the requirement of travel to conferences. When you teach every day, as I do, and have over a hundred students, as I did last semester, it can inspire a bit of panic in a nervous-type professor when she has to miss a class. I learned about and practiced Echo360 in the Faculty Technology Institute of 2012. It was one of a few options of designing an online lecture. It offered a few features I thought were great: it allows you to develop a link, so that the lecture can be posted online. Since I use wordpress for my class blogs, this was ideal for me. It also allows you to show students your desktop. I have recorded lectures before, once, and partly for my own amusement, from the hospital room after I had my second child. (I really did do this, holding the new baby, and it wasn’t like I skimped on the details in the reading either. I remember thinking “this lecture is getting a little dry.”) But that was just a blurry webcam video that, honestly, despite it being such a sentimental time, I’d hate to view again. I imagine the sound quality was really poor.

With Echo360, you simply use the mics in your laptop, or I did, and this worked great. You can use a webcam so that students can view your face on half of the screen and your desktop on the other. There are charms to being able to “see” your professor talking- think of the appeal of a podcast versus a youtube video- but in the end, and especially since I was going to be putting this on the web (though my wordpress blogs are not searchable, once wordpress changed their settings and they suddenly were, since fixed but still…) I decided it just isn’t in my interest to put too much video footage of my face talking for an hour. For various reasons.

So I was more comfortable, in the end (after some rehearsal) just leaving the webcam images out of the lecture.
Let me mention the, perhaps obvious, benefits of students being able to see a recording of your desk top. They are extensive. You can pull up and highlight portions of the reading, in just the way you do yourself with a mouse and the highlight function. This is while you are delivering the lecture. It would be great to have this feature in an actual class. You can develop a powerpoint, as I did. I do not usually use or enjoy powerpoint for class, but in a recorded lecture it just seems ideal. You can move from the powerpoint to things you do not want to put in the powerpoint, for example, I could turn to the class blog to explain the assignment represented there. I could move to look at a student reading response on the class blog. You can also very easily add video to your Echo360 lecture by simply playing a video on your desktop. Now, of course, these things require set up. It is panic-inducing to be recorded while you are fumbling around (and it doesn’t look good in play back). You do worry about “wasting” the tape with Echo360, and though they can edit things down, cutting out portions where you mess up, this seems above my own skill set. Experts in IT would have to help me with that, and so I tried to avoid that hassle. No matter how much help you use, however, they cannot splice together video, which was a lesson I learned the hard way (or a lesson that cost me one re-do.)

Finally, due to the FTI’s encouragement I used several of the teaching methods recommended. I used Michael Sandel’s online course on justice in my own course on justice. To me, it worked well as a kind of foil. It was required to view before class, along with the readings being discussed (we used Sandel’s anthology for this part of the course). Students had to comment on Sandel’s lecture on our blog, outline all of his points. He is a dazzling speaker, and students were dazzled by him. He really makes philosophy seem warm and engaging. He seems wise and he impresses students. On the other hand, he, and his students, never made very many points. We would count them up. It was very productive to begin our own class after analyzing another. Not one student complained about watching these videos, even though it was simply required in addition to the normal reading. And they certainly viewed them (I knew that because they had to post comments on them but also from discussion in class.) I am ready to use this method in my classes: I will record lectures in advance, and assign them along with the readings. These lectures will do what I often do in my “first day” on a subject- they will warn students about complex portions of the reading that they might (but should not) miss. They will orient them towards the reading.

This is a way to assist them in doing the reading. Then, in class, we will discuss and analyze the reading in an informed (i.e. they’ve done the reading) way. I don’t actually envision that I will be able to create a “bank” of these videos, for a few reasons. One, I have yet to not change a syllabus each semester. Two, I’d like to make them refer to the projects we have going on in a course. I often offer up “sample” student essays that I then critique for the class. Echo 360 would just be a handy way to do these critiques, because I can let the students view the “sample” and my comments while I talk through them. In general, Echo360 is a great tool. It will save me class time by allowing me to teach more. It allows me to divide up my teaching in these and I am sure in a few not-yet imagined ways. This is bound to impose a type of organization to what I am teaching (in the online lecture, what to get out of the reading; in the in class lecture, how to think about the reading) in a way that simply works well.

Posted in Classrooms, Echo 360, Faculty Showcase, Faculty Technology Institute, flipped classroom, Pedagogy, recording | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Using My iPad and Splice To Teach Students a Practical Skill

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Mendi Benigni

This month’s guest blogger is Dr. Denis Keyes from the Department of Teacher Education in the School of Education, Health, & Human Performance.

I wasn’t really sure how I was going to use the iPad we received from the FTI last year, as I tend to be more of a “traditional lecturer” than an “innovative interactor.” The most difficult course I teach is the undergraduate assessment course, which covers a multitude of topics related to screening, testing, evaluating skills and determining individualized education programs (IEPs) for children who have various forms of disabling conditions, primarily mental, learning or emotional disabilities. The worst part of this is that there are only so many hours in class time, and with so much to cover, it becomes impossible to do any really fun things in class…

One of the most important aspects of this course is teaching students to correctly administer the norm-referenced, standardized tests they are required to give, in order to achieve valid results. This requires some role playing, but when you have 37 students (yes, you read it correctly – 37 students in a 400 level course), individual role playing exercises become a zoo really quickly… But I needed to show the students how to administer these tests – particularly the Wide-Range Achievement and the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement tests. This is where my iPad became of great use!

I used my iPad to video-record myself administering both of those tests to students, and showed part of it in class, then put the rest of it onto OAKS so they could watch it in their own good time. When I did this, I realized that I could also add subsequent dialogue to the video, and headings, using the SPLICE App that we learned in the FTI last summer. Both of these Apps have been very useful to my courses in other ways this year, too. Not the least is recoding my graduate and distance education lectures so that I can post them on OAKS, in case students either missed the lecture live, or if they need a ‘refresher’ view!

As always, the FTI is, in my opinion, the best thing the College offers its faculty short of a paycheck! Many thanks for giving me this opportunity to learn and even be paid to do so!!! You guys are, to use a very overused phrase…. AWESOME!!! :>)

Posted in 1-1-1, Assessment, Faculty Technology Institute, keyes | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Introducing Evernote to Graduate Students

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Mendi Benigni

This week’s FTI Guest Blogger is Dr. Christine Finnan in Teacher Education & Anthropoplogy.

Evernote was one of the many tools shared at the 2012 summer Faculty Technology Institute. I began using it after the FTI to clip articles that are relevant to my teaching and research. I like it because it is easy to use and the resources are available across multiple platforms (unlike bookmarking webpages). Because of my new-found love of Evernote, I thought that it would be a good resource for students in a graduate course I was scheduled to teach in spring 2013 – MTLA 602: Critical Issues in Contemporary Education. I selected this course to introduce students to Evernote because their major project is to complete a literature review, and I thought that they could easily store relevant articles and websites in Evernote and share the folder with me so that I could track their progress.

During the first class, I provided a brief overview of Evernote and told students that I would be tracking their use of it during the semester. They were interested and willing to try something new. I planned to return to it throughout the semester to provide additional help. During the second class, I arranged for Jared Seay, the library liaison for Teacher Education to provide an overview of library resources that are useful in conducting literature reviews. During his presentation, Jared introduced students to Zotero, another web application that not only stores sources but also automatically formats the bibliographical information into discipline-specific format. In our case, this was APA. Sorry Evernote, but the students were hooked. I’m sure my experience is not unusual, but my students, undergraduate and graduate, do not find learning to use APA fun, rewarding or necessary. It is one of those things you hate to hear yourself saying as a teacher, but I do find myself saying, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but you just have to learn to do it.” It reminds me of my mother making me sit at the table until I finished my lima beans. So here was Zotero, formatting sources for students as well as storing and tagging, and Evernote, which may be better at storing and tagging, but it can’t do the one hated task: formatting into proper APA format. I allowed them to use either tool to complete their literature review.

At the end of the semester, I created a short survey for my students to have them evaluate both Evernote and Zotero. I asked them to rate their familiarity and experience with both tools and to provide ways in which they helped with research, what their downsides were, and if they would recommend using the tools. None of the students rated their familiarity or experience with Evernote very high. Several commented that it is probably a good tool, but they liked Zotero better. One student admitted to not liking technology in general. Their ratings of Zotero were more mixed. The two students who admitted to resisting technology, preferred reading and marking up paper copies of articles and making written notes. The other five students were moderately to very familiar with Zotero. They all liked how Zotero helped them assemble literature links, organize their material, work in a more environmentally friendly way, and properly cite sources. Their experience with Zotero was not without problems.

The students that used Zotero listed the following issues:

  • Only able to download the link, not the entire article
  • The plugin with Word on the Mac was confusing; instructions were hard to locate
  • It had to be downloaded to a computer rather than working across platforms
  • The version of APA is not the one most often required (Zotero uses 6; some journals still require 5)
  • It was hard to keep track of notes and comments

In response to the question “Would you recommend that I continue using Zotero with future classes?” the five who used it enthusiastically said “yes!” and those who did not use it said it should be introduced and students can decide if they want to use it.

Back to Evernote. I worked with two graduate assistants on several projects this semester, and we used Evernote extensively. I asked them to conduct research for me in a number of areas, and Evernote was a very useful tool for saving articles and making notes on them. The graduate assistants determined that Evernote is better than Zotero for sharing documents and for casual reviewing of found documents. They used Zotero for citation purposes in their courses.

I find myself using Evernote exclusively. Zotero does not work using Chrome, which I prefer over Firefox and Safari, and I am comfortable with APA after many years of use. I am happy to have exposure to both tools and recommend that you introduce both tools to students, illustrating the strengths of each and how each may help in different phases of the research process.

Posted in 1-1-1, Christine Finnan, citation, Evernote, Faculty Technology Institute, graduate, Research, Zotero | Tagged | Comments Off

Susan Flynn Talks About PBL and Twitter in Her Class

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mendi Benigni

This week’s FTI guest blogger is Susan Flynn from Teacher Education in the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance.

I have been teaching in post-secondary education for over 17 years. I continue to seek out opportunities to learn, improve, and adapt my teaching strategies and delivery of content to engage the ever-changing college student and to incorporate new ways to enhance the learning process.

Such an opportunity was presented in the 2012 Faculty Technology Institute.  The FTI provided creative ideas and tools to enhance technology integration in the classroom. To fulfill the FTI training goal to infuse technology into courses, the use of AirSketch, Dropbox.com, iMovie, Prezi, GoodNotes, Twitter and Problem Based Learning (PBL) were used in my courses this past year.    Seeking new strategies to understand the attitudes, motivations, and approaches to learning by the new, young technology savvy generation has been an interesting challenge. By infusing more technology and using PBL for some assignments, students have been able to connect learning to real life situations and generate excellent discussions. Highlighted below are two strategies I learned at the FTI and implemented in my classes this year.

Thanks to the guidance from Teaching, Learning & Technology (TLT), I was able to develop a scope and sequence to implement the PBL approach in my First Year Experience class providing an interesting strategy for delivering course content.  Colleagues from HHP also implemented PBL and we surveyed the students before and after their experience to examine their perceptions and knowledge gained through the use of problem-based learning.

To implement the PBL approach, my freshman were given a global research question related to the courses main topic.  Throughout the semester students were asked to be prepared with information they gathered on their topics for each lecture and be able to discuss in class and during their group sessions.  Each group of four students was assigned a specific role/position to guide them in their research.  Lecture material was presented to accent and guide the students’ searches to answer the proposed question.  Students were given tasks to complete each week in their group sessions and as an instructor, I provided guidance on expectations of tasks to be accomplished.

graph of pblOne highlight for the students PBL experience was when professionals were invited to class and “role-played” specific positions and the students interviewed them.   The students were able to use the anecdotal information for their culminating research paper and presentation. screenshotMy freshman class was receptive to the PBL approach as evident by a survey I administered. One of the strengths PBL offered was the structure requiring students to use critical thinking, prepare materials for each class and collaborate with classmates.  I was pleased with the results of my first PBL experience and will seek out more ways to use PBL in my classes.

Another highlight of the FTI training was finding ways to use Twitter.   Thanks to the FTI, I now have a twitter channel and engage in the world of “tweeting.” I began integrating Twitter inside and outside the classroom as it relates to concepts about the course material.  I’ve created a class Twitter account and the students tweet when they see something that relates to the course content outside the classroom. It could be an article, a link to a unique website, or a YouTube video.  Each week, at the beginning of class, I bring up the Twitter feed and we look at the interesting information posted. The students who tweeted the information, then share what they learned during class.  Students earn points for tweeting content-related information.   I also tweet new information each week that will provide students with new “quick bits” of information to accent course content.   Implementing PBL and Twitter has added new flavor to my classes.  I appreciate the FTI training for educating and providing new tools to enhance my teaching and providing an opportunity to share with other educators on campus.

Posted in Faculty Showcase, Faculty Technology Institute, instructional technology, mobile, PBL, Pedagogy, Problem-based Learning, Susan Flynn | Tagged , | Comments Off

Good Times with GoodNotes

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Mendi Benigni

This month’s FTI guest blogger is Dr. Emily Neil Skinner from Teacher Education.

Attending the Faculty Technology Institute 2012: Teaching the Tech Generation last summer was reminiscent of going to the Cooper River Bridge Pre-Race Expo. Or seeing Cirque de Soleil. Like the race expo, there was so much to see and try on- only the (free) merchandise was tech tools instead of running gear. Similar to Cirque de Soleil, the tech tools presented a lot of eye candy….

I was instantly engaged. But, a little overwhelmed. I needed to focus. I could relate to the tech generation students whose technology practices and identities were the focus of the institute. So much technology. So little time. What to focus my attention on? I remembered the advice of my mentor when I was a 6th grade ELA teacher in Michigan and we attended the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference together: Just pick a couple of things to take away and implement immediately

So, I strategically approached the institute with this advice in mind. Pick a couple of ideas to take away from the smorgasbord of technologies and tools presented and start using them before I forget them. Which of the seemingly multiplying apps would be most useful to me tomorrow and also on a day-to-day basis?

I currently serve as a co-editor of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (with Margaret Hagood, TEDU). We collectively adjudicate 250+ peer-reviewed manuscripts a year, and keeping track of our manuscript tracking is almost as challenging as reading and responding to the manuscripts themselves. However, with the professional development offered at the 2012 Faculty Technology Institute last summer, ongoing assistance and insights from our super-savvy tech liaison, Mendi Benigni, and our wicked smart and efficient administrative assistant, Meg Manuel, we have set up a system that utilizes multiple tech tools to help organize, share and collaboratively respond to hundreds of manuscripts and related documents.

For this blog entry, I will zoom in on my use of GoodNotes, an app that I was introduced to at the FTI.GoodNotes icon GoodNotes allows users to download pdfs, annotate the documents, organize docs in files and share your notes with others. I started with the free app, but once I had hit my two “notebook” limit for saving documents, I shelled out the $4.99 so I could save an unlimited amount of notebooks (pdf’s).  Users can save multiple documents within one notebook if, for instance, needing to respond to students’ work, all assignments could go in the same notebook and users may have two notebooks available at all times (users can delete a notebook at any time).

screenshot of goodnotes shelf

Since I prefer to save each manuscript separately, the upgraded app was a no-brainer. The free app has all of the capabilities of the $4.99 app as far as annotation.

Basically, from start to finish, this is how it goes with GoodNotes:

  • When users  touch on the pdf on the iPad from downloading context, an “Open in Goodnotes” option is given.
  • Users are then given an option to start a new notebook, or if a notebook is already open, the pdf can be opened at the bottom of that notebook.
  • Users can either write with a stylus, fingertip, or in a text box. Text boxes   can be stretched to fit any size/shape and moved  around on the pdf.

screenshot of goodnotes

  • Users can also highlight text as part of reading or highlight comments to ensure they are easy to find when returning to the document later. I always highlight my comments so that I can locate them later when drafting decision letters.
  • Users can view pdfs a single page at a time or flip to the navigation tool where all the pages can be seen at one time (along with highlights and comments). Like all iPad apps, users can zoom in as much as desired. GoodNotes saves instantaneously so writing is never lost before it has been saved.
  • PDFs can be exported (either a page or the whole notebook) with or without notes with collaborators via email, iTunes, Dropbox or other external apps on the iPad.  Printing wirelessly is easy.
  • Filing documents is user-friendly-through selecting “edit” and then exporting, moving, duplicating or deleting files.

In short, GoodNotes is user-friendly and time-efficient. If you decide to try it out, I’m confident you’ll have a GoodTime with GoodNotes! GoodLuck!

Posted in Emily Skinner, Faculty Technology Institute, goodnotes, Research, tlt | Tagged , , | Comments Off