More Word Cloud Fun with Tagxedo

I'm not sure how this one got passed me for so long!  If you like Wordle, you'll love Tagxedo.com.  It provides you the ability to mold your words into visual shapes like flowers, hearts, President Lincoln, birds, etc.  Fun stuff...because we need fun stuff.

Here is my Tagxedo word cloud of my blog.  This image shared using the Tagxedo "code snippet."  You should know that using Tagxedo requires one to download and install Silverlight (unless you already have it, of course).

Have fun all. :)

VoiceThread Universal: Support for Screenreaders

Three and a half years ago I began using VoiceThread to support my students' learning.  I quickly began to see how VoiceThread supports more learners than traditional text-based discussion forums.  Studetnts are given options to contribute through voice, video or text -- supporting more learning preferences and fostering more emotional, "off the cuff" reflections that are typically edited out when communicating through text alone.  It also gave me a quick and easy way to communicate with my students through voice and video -- providing personalized, helpful and supportive feedback without the hurt feelings that text-based communications can result in.


I can't remember when exactly but soon after I learned that VoiceThread did not support the use of screen readers, a type of accessible technology used by blind students to navigate and understand the electronic content on their screen.  I remember sharing this concern with Ben Papell and Steve Muth, the co-founders, more than three years ago.  I didn't stop using VoiceThread, however, because I was seeing its potential to improve my online students' learning experiences and I wasn't going to let that go.  Instead, I started surveying my students and asking for their feedback about how and why VoiceThread was different and beneficial as a learning environment.  The results were staggering to me.  I also saw other inspirational uses of VoiceThread by non-traditional learners, like the video conversation between deaf students facilitated by Rosemary Stifter.  I witnessed my own dyslexic students use the video commenting feature and contribute amazing insights -- the same students who are commonly perceived as "failures" in distance learning classes built exclusively around text-based discussion boards. 

These experiences made me aware of how frequently educators throw the baby out with the bathwater when they discover a tool is not fully 508 compliant.  While I wholeheartedly support the spirit of web accessibility, if we refuse our obligation to explore and experiment with new tools that are not compliant, how will we discover which ones provide valuable opportunities to empower more learners (while aren't yet ready for ALL learners?).

This week, VoiceThread is unveiling VoiceThread Universal, a version of VoiceThread that is accessible to screen readers.  The official announcement from VoiceThread should go out Tuesday morning (tomorrow).  I am elated and wish to applaud the VoiceThread team for their hard work and dedication to making their tool more accessible to more learners than any other online tool I've ever used.  You can take a peek at the new VoiceThread Universal here. More bells and whistles are coming...but, for now, our students who rely upon screenreaders can now effectively navigate a VoiceThread -- click play, listen to comments, record their own -- and learn in community. They now will have the experience of listening to the voices of their peers describe the visual media on each VoiceThread slide, rather than a mechanical voice read an alt-description of an image on their screen.  I have not tried the interface out myself with a screen reader but I'd really love to hear some feedback and thoughts from any of you who may be able/willing to do so.   

Finally, I have one final thought about this journey (which will continue, rather than end, here).  I frequently hear educators state that we (faculty, administrators, staff -- all of "us") should ban technologies that aren't accessible to prove a "point" about the importance of 508 compliance in the age of online technologies.  I'd like to suggest a different path.  I believe, alternatively, we need to see ourselves as stakeholders in a very important conversation about accessibility.  We are advocates for our students.  Most developers of social media tools don't view their jobs in this context -- it's our job to educate them, show them the value of their tools in student learning, and encourage them to develop accessible interfaces (sometimes even explain what that means exactly).  We need to initiate and guide this conversation.  The strong-arm approach won't work here.  These tools are not created "for education," yet we know many web-based tools frequently hold tremendous value for crafting relevant learning experiences for our students.  This is a conversation that we need to participate in, follow up on, and make a priority in our professional endeavors.  I hope you'll join me in this conversation and share your own success stories along the way.

The Social Media Irony in Education

Today I am attending the CUE Conference in Palm Springs. This is my second year attending CUE and I continue to be impressed with the energy, knowledge and curiosity of the fabulous presenters.

Here's an ironic observation I made today.  Most of the educational technology conferences I attend are geared towards higher education.  At those conferences, just like here at CUE, the sessions frequently showcase ways to use social media in support of learning.  But when I listen to the comments made by K12 teachers and compare them to comments made at higher ed conferences by college professors, I notice a very interesting difference. 

K12 teachers voice frustration over their inability to have students participate in or with social media sites (Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, etc.) because they're blocked by their institution.  In essence, the "openness" of the online environment is viewed as "dangerous" to students so the sites are blocked.  In contrast, college professors commonly say, "I can't/won't use that because it's too open" referring to concerns over violating student privacy. 

The point here is that K12 teachers are advocating for the need to use social media tools in support of learning -- in an open environment -- because it's the only way we can begin to educate our students how to communicate and socialize online (sort of an important skill in 21st century life).   Today's opening keynote featured a teacher from Australia who noted his country's open policy around using social media in schools and said, "Shutting students out would be just silly."  And, on the flip side, we have college educators voicing concerns about using social media for learning because of the risks of violating student privacy (FERPA).  So, let me get this straight.  Those who are unable to use it, want to and those who are able to use it, don't want to use it.  Hmm. Sounds like we have something to talk through. 

I'd love to hear from some of you who have social media use policies in place at your institutions (k12 or higher ed) or may be working on one.  Please share!  Help us all learn together.

Teaching Without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture (ADEC Summit Presentation)

Today I am presenting at the 22nd ADEC (Association for Distance Education in California) Summit in Palm Springs. I have shared a (static) version of my presentation on Slideshare. You may view it below or on Slideshare.

Teaching Without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture

View more presentations from Michelle Pacansky-Brock

The Life of a 21st Century Educator in 90 Seconds

How does it feel to be a member of the educational community in the 21st century?  This 90-second video encapsulates it perfectly for me.  It also captures the importance of risk taking, experimentation, and the ultimate goal -- creating dynamic, effective, successful learning experiences for our students.

Twitter for Social Presentations & Information Curation

I am reaching new levels of understanding the significance of Twitter on education. 

Keeping in line with my interest in leveraging social media to make learning more, well, social, I've been intrigued by some ideas I've seen shared on Twitter and other blogs that highlight the importance of participating in a Twitter backchannel while you are presenting.  I fully agree that this both stimulates greater discussion and breaks down the formal hierarchy between "presenter" and "audience" (an important element of social/participatory learning).  The question I've had is "how"? 

I was really thrilled when I found Keynote Tweet back in January, a simple script that a user can download and integrate into a Keynote presentation which allows for tweets to be sent automatically when a slide is played in presenter mode.  Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at using it and have since read that a recent Twitter API update has rendered the tool dead.  Boo.  Powerpoint users have more options (double boo, as I'm not a PP user) and you can check out those options on Jane Hart's blog.

While I really like the idea of auto-tweets being sent in sync with slides, as it is more likely to promote relevant discussion in step with the thoughts brewing in the room at the time, I'm going to have to shift gears until I find a replacement for Keynote Tweet.  If you know of one, please share!

As an alternative idea, I'm going to schedule tweets using one of the many free tools that provide this service.  The two I've played with recently include Twuffer, twAitter, and LaterBro.  The concept is simple.  Sign in with your Twitter account, type your tweet (remember, 140 characters or less), and select the date/time you want it to be sent.  That's it...really.  The only other critical thing to remember is to include the appropriate hashtag in every tweet and share that hashtag in your presentation (in the corner of every slide, for example).  The hashtag ("#" followed by a sequence of letters/numbers) is needed by the audience members to search for your tweets and reply to them. 

Now this isn't a new concept in the cutting edge circles of social media but it is new to education (at least from my viewpoint).  I see a lot of potential for this practice in presentation-driven environments like conferences but also in large lecture settings.  I think about students who are unable to attend a class and how these tweets could keep them connected at a distance and even provide them with an opportunity to participate, in some way.  The scheduled tweets could be questions you'd like to pose to students that may link back to earlier material or probe for opinions about topics. 

Information Curation
What I'm not sure about right now is how successful this is going to be if the audience at the conference doesn't use Twitter.  So, perhaps stressing the relevance of Twitter as both a popular tool and a path to developing an essential 21st century skill is a good approach.

Mashable reported yesterday that 450,000 new Twitter accounts are being created daily.  177 million tweets are sent each day or 1 billion each week.  Twitter is more than annoying, superficial updates about banal activities.  It's a rich resource for sharing resources with your peers, having resources sent to you, following interesting people and organizations -- ultimately, curating your own information feed.

Historically, a curator is a person who is granting an important role in a museum, designated as the one who will oversee the selection process of art works that will be included in a particular exhibition.  Moving forward, living independently in the 21st century will require us all to be our own information curators.  I always find it intriguing how much more relevant art-related skills are becoming in our digital, global society. 

Encouraging or requiring our students to use Twitter to curate their own personal learning networks is one of the greatest contributions we can make to their toolkit of 21st century skills.  But, first, we must step up, participate, and learn to curate our own.

Wanna play?  Here's a good, basic "Getting Started on Twitter" overview written by Dave Fleet.

Don't Take My Stuff: Examining the Value of Sharing in Education

This month I'm delving into a topic that, to me, is often be considered a "white elephant in the room."  Throughout the past several years, I've facilitated many, many workshops for college faculty focused on demonstrating how to use the internet to find valid, engaging content for student learning, as well as how to use social media to share one's own work and make it more widely available to students and the public, and/or to construct learning activities for students to use these tools.

From my observations, I've found that faculty are generally intrigued and open to the idea of integrating web-based content into their students' learning.  Many are excited about the possibilities of integrating social media into student learning.  But when it comes to sharing one's own work, a different conversation begins. 

I embrace each of these conversations, as I think they're essential to the future of our digital, mobile society.  As we all learn together now in a community created through global contributions, the willingness to "share" and give back to this community is the energy and current that will sustain its effectiveness.  Encouraging faculty to see the value of sharing and, better yet, to share their work with a Creative Commons license so the work explicitly communicates that using the work is ok as long as you attribute the creator and use it in the following ways...

What does the reluctance to share say about the values that are embedded in our educational system? Does this vary from K12 to higher ed?  Have you shared your work?  How, why and under what circumstances were you willing to do so? Do you feel motivated and encouraged to share?  How would the challenges we face at this pivotal moment of educational transformation through technology be facilitated more effectively if we all openly shared with each other -- our ideas, our experiences, examples of our projects, our favorite lecture, etc?

I imagine you have a perspective, story or thought about this topic and I hope you'll share it with us.  I invite you to read the blog post, Don't Take My Stuff: Examining the Value of Sharing in Education, and participate in the VoiceThread conversation below.

If you're new to VoiceThread, take this opportunity to try something new.  There's no need to worry -- you can delete any comment you make by playing it back and clicking on the "garbage can" icon that will appear on your screen. 





How to Leave a Comment in the VoiceThread:

• Click on the “Sign in" or "Register” button.
  - If you are new to VoiceThread, register for a free account using your e-mail address and name.
  - If you have an existing account, sign in by entering your e-mail address and password.

• When you are ready to participate, click on the “Comment” button.

• To leave a voice comment with your computer’s microphone: Click on “Record.”  

• If prompted, click “Allow” and start talking.

• When you are done, click on the red “OK, Start Talking” button.

• Click “Save” to retain, "Cancel" to re-record, or "Record More" to add to your comment. 

A Sample VoiceThread Rubric

I understand how helpful samples are when experimenting with using new technologies for learning.  Even after you have a clear picture of how you want to use a new tool in your class, you will soon ask, "Hmmm...and how am I going to grade the activity?" 

Rubrics can be very helpful to instructors and students.  When you develop a rubric for an assignment, it forces you to make important decisions about the criteria you will use to assign credit.  It's helpful to make a brief list of the criteria categories (keep them simple and few for quick grading -- if there is such a thing) and then distribute a maximum number of points to each criteria category.  Then ask yourself to identify what qualifies for "partial" and "full" points in each criteria category. 

Share each rubric with your students before the activity begins so they have an opportunity to review what your expectations are.  Include a note on the rubric to your students that clearly states you will be using the rubric to grade their activities/assignments.  You'll find that this will dramatically reduce the "grade negotiation" sessions in your life and students will appreciate understanding exactly what you expect of them.

In an effort to help, I'm sharing a simple VoiceThread rubric that may be a resource for you or someone you know.  I've shared it under a CC0 public domain mark which releases it into the public domain (i.e. you don't need to attribute me if you use it in your own class).


Click here to download the VoiceThread Rubric.