Join me this Wed, January 22nd from 4-5pm Pacific for a dynamic Hangout on Air conversation with three fabulous online instructors representing California community colleges. The Hangout will feature +Tracy Schaelen, +Michael Smedshammer, and +Lene Whitley-Putz -- three @ONE Online Certified Instructors.
They will take you inside their online classes and demonstrate
techniques and strategies used to make week one the solid foundation it
needs to be to establish a successful start for online students.
This Hangout is part of The Center, a next-generation online learning community which I began coordinating in October 2013. Click here for a Guide to The Center.
Center events include Hangouts on Air and Twitter Chats (#CCCLEARN) focusing on topics and innovations for improving teaching and learning through technology that are relevant to California community colleges. All events are free and open to everyone.
January is upon us and the start of a new semester got me a little behind with the planning of this month's "Teaching with VoiceThread" Hangout -- but it was great, nonetheless! I especially enjoyed the terrific reflections shared in the first part of the Hangout by +Michael Kieley and +Deborah Lemon about how teaching with VoiceThread has improved their connections with their students, their understanding of their students' needs, and their ability to measure their students' abilities and growth. We also had an interesting dialogue about the value of "community" in foreign language classes, which is a strength of VoiceThread. I also had a chance to answer some "how to" questions about "Identities" and adding video files to a VoiceThread by using the 'screenshare' feature of Hangouts in the second half of the session.
I was joined today in a Google+ Hangout on Air by a group of nine fabulous online educators encompassing k-12 and higher education institutions in California and Australia. The conversation was dynamic, the reflections were heartfelt and inspirational including stories about students and personal growth as teachers, and the tips and strategies shared were invaluable.
And the Google+ Hangout archive didn't work. :( As fabulous as that hour was, I am so very disappointed to not be able to share it with more of you.
Thanks to Dana Howard, Brad Belbas, Jaime Vandergrift, and Amanda Volz (of VoiceThread) for joining me today for my Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout. This was the most instructionally diverse Hangout we've had, as our participants represented K12, high school, and college instructors. That made for a fresh and lively conversation about many topics. Amanda shared an exciting update about some new LMS integration features on the horizon for VoiceThread site license holders -- this will appeal to Blackboard users! And Dana gave us a peek into one of her AP art history VoiceThread activities. Still working through some audio hiccups with Google Hangouts, folks, sorry about the sound glitch with the screenshare.
Enjoy the archive. It is also available on the "Hangout" page of this blog (where you can learn about my next Hangout scheduled for Tuesday on the topic of "Online Learning: the Good, the Bad, and the Awesome."
Today I had a really exhilarating "Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout" with Brad Belbas, Suzanne Friedman, Deborah Lemon, Jaime Vandergrift, and Amanda Volz. Great ideas and tips were shared! Deborah Lemon shared her screen and showcased a fabulous and practical application of VoiceThread in which her Spanish students create their own VoiceThreads that include brief webcam recordings of themselves demonstrating their Spanish speaking skills. Their peers leave comments using their own webcams (a required component of the assignment) and the student (creator) joins in by commenting back. The result is an asynchronous video dialogue in Spanish. We had a great, reflective discussion about the importance of creativity as a skill in the 21st century, the value of VoiceThread as a digital ePortfolio tool in higher education and I had a chance to demo how to use Identities and the Move feature to facilitate an effective conversation with feedback in VoiceThread.
Join me next month!
I hope you enjoy the archive! If you'd like to join in on our next "Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout" scheduled for 10am PST / 1pm EST, please go to my Google+ page and add me to your Circles. The live stream of each Hangout is always embedded on the Hangouts page of my blog if you'd just like to watch.
Thanks to Torria Bond, Brad Belbas, David Detwiler, and Michael Kieley for joining Sadie Anderson, of VoiceThread, and me in today's Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout on Air!
We covered lots of ground including ideas for encouraging faculty adoption of VoiceThread, how to moderate comments in a VoiceThread, a practical example for teaching Spanish with VoiceThread, and clarifying the steps and benefits involved with using the Groups feature in VoiceThread.
Join us for the next Teaching with VoiceThread Hangout scheduled for Friday, November 9th at 1pm PDT/4pm EDT. To learn how, please visit the Hangout page of my blog.
Join me, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, and a member of the VoiceThread team
on Wednesday, October 24th at 3pm PDT/ 6pm EDT in a Google+ Hangout On
Air. This event will be recorded and streamed live.
Come to ask questions about teaching with VoiceThread, share your ideas for using it
in your class, or raise topics for discussion. This interactive
environment set within Google+ provides seats for up to 10 people to engage in a live video
conversation and accommodates an unlimited number of online viewers.
To
learn how to participate, visit the Hangout page of Michelle’s blog.
Direct link to archive: http://youtu.be/dhVFRLj_xns
I just wrapped up our inaugural Teach & Share, my experimental effort to use Google+ Hangouts on Air to discuss "hot topics" in teaching and learning. Today, I was joined online by Mike Smedshammer, Jennifer Garner, Tera Ulbert, Jacque Harris, Christine Sibley, and Brad Belbas who shared their experiences about Canvas. We also had up to 18 viewers of the live Hangout stream during the event.
My big takeaways from our conversation are 1) the ways that Canvas is improving the faculty adoption barriers for integrating rich media into classes by streamlining media content into the LMS without an instructor needing to mess around with embed code and 2) how various features in Canvas (built-in of audio and video communications and a continuous, threaded collection of all communications an instructor sends to each student) can increase instructor-student relations (as cited in the feedback shared by Mike Smedshammer in this Hangout).
Thank you again for participating! I learned a lot from you and, honestly, now I'm aching to have the opportunity to teach with Canvas.
I hope this archive is a resource to many!
Have a topic in mind for a future Teach & Share?
Leave it here in a comment or Tweet it to @brocansky.
In my previous blog post, I wrote about using Google+ Hangouts for
faculty development and learning, particularly to connect faculty beyond our physical campus
boundaries and reduce some of the redundancy in our workload.
As a follow up, I'm arranging what I'm referring to as a "Teach & Share" which is simply a one-hour Google+
Hangout On Air dedicated to a hot topic in college teaching. Here is our inaugural
event -- I hope you can join us!
Tuesday, October 16 at 3:30pm PDT/6:30 EDT Teach & Share: a Google+ Hangout on Air Topic - Canvas by Instructure: The hot, new LMS on the block
Canvas is a new, open source LMS from Instructure (http://www.instructure.com/)
that has grabbed that attention of many institutions recently. This
"Teach & Share" is an open, informal invitation to faculty who are teaching with Canvas or considering adopting Canvas to share their experiences with other faculty who are
beginning the process of evaluating it as a possible LMS solution. What
do you like? What do you dislike? What works? What needs to improve?
Bring your ideas to share and questions to discuss with your peers!
What is a Teach and Share?
A
"Teach & Share" is simply an hour-long Hangout On Air in which
faculty are invited to come together to share their teaching experiences
about a particular topic and learn from one another. The event will be recorded.
You must receive an invitation to the Hangout to be able to join.
Have a suggestion for another Teach & Share topic? Share it here in the form of a comment!
Two Ways to Participate: Join (active participation) or View (passive/lurking)
There are seats in the Hangout for up to 10 participants (including me). So please be mindful about what your preferences are to ensure those who want to contribute have a chance to get a seat. If you want to "join," be sure to follow the instructions below.
If you just are interested in "view" the event, you may watch the live feed that I will embed on the Hangout page of my blog.
How to receive an invitation to join the Hangout on Air (this is for those who wish to actively contribute, rather than passively view the event):
Log into Google+ with your Google account. (If you do not have a Google account, you will need to create one.)
Once you have added me to your Circles, I will "Add you back." When
this reciprocal relationship has been established, you will receive
invitations to join my Teach & Shares.
On the day/time of the Hangout, open Google+ and look for the
invitation that will appear in your feed. Click on "Join Hangout." If
it's your first Hangout, you will need to download a plug in the first
time.
Have an topic in mind for a future Teach and Share? Please make your suggestion in a comment below!
"When we think of where people turn for information, we usually think of
databases, the Internet, intranets and portals, or more traditional
repositories such as file cabinets or manuals. What we may not think of
is one of the most crucial sources of all: other people."
It's time that all higher
ed stakeholders value technology as a vehicle to connect people, share
ideas, foster relationships, break down the silos, reduce the redundancy
in our work processes, and collaboratively solve the problems that so
many institutions and individual faculty are grappling with across our
nation. This is a new way of framing technology which is still viewed
as a barrier in the eyes of many individuals, particularly those who
resist the notion that online learning can be relevant, inspirational,
empowering, and life changing which, I have learned, it can when an
instructor is trained and supported effectively.
How Google Hangouts Are Rocking My World
I've been reflecting recently on how Google+ Hangouts have affected my learning and thinking about how free, easy-to-use, social, synchronous video-based learning environments will reshape organizational faculty development programs in the future. The future is looking much more faculty-centered to me, provided that faculty participate, build their personal learning networks, and engage in online informal learning.
So many people have asked me, "What makes Hangouts so different, really?" Well, in some ways nothing but in other ways, everything. Really, they deliver many of the same technological features that Skype delivers -- synchronous voice, text, and video communications -- but Hangouts support video conversations in groups up to 10 for free. Further, the simple fact that a Hangout is "baked into" a social network that I use to cultivate my own personal collection of humans from who'd I'd like learn and with whom I'd like to share sets it apart. Simultaneously, this is still the greatest drawback to most faculty, as well, as relatively few are using Google+.
Hangouts come in two flavors: the standard "Hangout" and "Hangout On Air." The "On Air" feature allows you to simultaneously stream your video conversation to the web (not always appropriate, no, but it can be quite valuable for certain applications). The stream appears automatically on your YouTube Channel (which you manually connect to Hangouts one time) and on your Google+ Profile page. When you launch the Hangout On Air, you also are provided with embed code that you may copy and paste into any html web page (like your course management system, a blog, a wiki, etc.) and point your audience there ahead of time. When the Hangout On Air is over, the stream is archived in video on your YouTube Channel (which you can adjust to either public, unlisted, or private).
For the past year, I have been holding a monthly office hour session for VoiceThread in my role as their Higher Ed Learning Consultant. This is an opportunity for any educator using VoiceThread to ask me questions, share ideas about how they're using VoiceThread, and work through questions or problems they have. Before August I was holding the sessions in a web conferencing system that required advanced registration. There were several months when nobody showed up. In August, my first Hangout On Air month, I had a dynamic group of between 4-7 people join me and last month Amanda, my colleague from VoiceThread, and I were joined by three educators. The experience is just more fluid, more natural. And so is the conversation -- at least after I have gotten over my initial stage fright! Anyone who says presenting in front of a webcam is NOT nerve racking like public speaking has never done it.
Learning from Other Faculty: Without Walls
But the really compelling idea that I'm left with is probably the most simple. It's about how faculty are learning today on college campuses. As I reflect on my experiences with teaching, the greatest "Ah ha" moments I've had are those that have come about through the informal learning moments I've had interacting with other faculty members. I have not worked on a physical campus since 2009; yet, my "Ah ha" moments have not dwindled. They continue to flourish -- through the faculty development classes I teach (our VoiceThread discussions), the webinars I present and attend; the interactions I have on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and my blog with my PLN; and now my Google Hangouts.
Over the past decade, as state budgets have dwindled higher ed faculty have become increasingly more part-time and more frequently work for multiple institutions. Earlier this month, I Skyped with a colleague of mine who is now teaching for FOUR colleges. The point here is that web-based social technologies allow faculty to engage in formal learning while immersed in personalized video conversations at a distance. The boundaries of our campuses are no longer obstacles that keep us from learning from faculty at other campuses. We really are one big learning community ... if we just participate.
On college campuses, faculty development programs continue to be cut along with the budget, leaving the minimally staffed departments (if there is even one!) to be managing responsibilities that reach far outside of their original domain and leaving no time to stay current on emerging technologies. Exploring, questioning, examining and experimenting with how to teach effectively with social technologies is perhaps the factor that will keep college learning moving forward. These are the questions that will empower us to recraft a college learning experience that prepares our students for life in a digital, mobile, interconnected, global society -- one in which employers expect new employees to demonstrate their ability to have fostered relationships at a distance (through Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.) and be able to effectively present and converse asynchronous and synchronously through a webcam (for starters).
There are a mess of issues that faculty deal with on a daily basis. How do we navigate the overwhelming world of new technologies? Where do we start? How do we teach with new tools and manage accessibility regulations? How do I navigate my students' privacy effectively in the open web? How do we balance life and work? How do we foster active learning with large class sizes? What LMS should my insitution change to? What conferences are worth attending? We all have the same questions! Let's ask them together! From my experiences, technology is so often viewed as a barrier in higher education. It is seen as as an obstacle that comes between humans and undermines our genuine ability to interact and engage with each other. I've never viewed technology that way. To me, it's technology's dazzling capability to bring humans together regardless of their physical location that excite me.
Faculty Development Hangouts?
I
would like to start arranging Google Hangouts for faculty to discuss
hot topics, share ideas, and just converse with one another. Do you
think this is a good idea? Would you attend or be interested in watching
an archive of a Hangout On Air? If so, add me to your Circles
and leave a comment here on my blog with your thoughts or ideas for
Hangout topics. If you have questions that you'd like answered, please
leave them here in the form of a blog comment and I'd be happy to answer
them.
Each month, I host two events for VoiceThread's higher education community: a webinar and an online office hour. The events are geared towards showcasing effective practices of VoiceThread in college learning and providing assistance to educators who are teaching with VoiceThread (or want to learn how). Recently, we moved the office hour event to Google+ Hangouts!
September 2012 Higher Ed VoiceThread Events:
Diversifying Instruction in Large Lecture Classes with VoiceThread
This webinar will feature the
teaching innovations of
Ginger Shultz,
Lecturer of Chemistry
at the
University of Michigan
Many instructors struggle to understand how to use collaborative
technologies to support large, lecture-based classes. In this webinar,
you will learn how Ginger Shultz employs VoiceThread in an organic
chemistry laboratory course that enrolls 350-850 students. Ginger will
discuss how her use of VoiceThread has enabled her to foster greater
community in her face-to-face classroom, as well as unveil the unique
learner perspectives that often get lost in large classes. These
outcomes allow Ginger to understand the flow of her students learning
and make shifts in her instruction, as needed.
Hangout with Michelle and the VoiceThread Team
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
3:00 PDT/ 6:00 EDT
I use Google+ Hangouts on Air to engage in live online learning sessions
with
college educators who have questions about how to teach with VoiceThread.
Bring your questions and topics for discussion!
Up to 10 participants (including me!) can participate in a live Hangout but an
unlimited number may view the streaming video on my blog here.
I just wrapped up my first Hangout On Air which was the new environment I'm using for my monthly online VoiceThread office hour. The archive of the Hangout is embedded below if you'd like to view it and learn! It was fun!
The Event in Review
I was joined by 4-9 colleagues (the number varied throughout the hour) which was a great number for the group. The flow of the video could certainly have been smoother and I hit some very rocky experiences with the screenshare function which was too bad but the conversation was great.
I am reflecting now on how great it felt to be joined by so many educators who have successfully completed my Building Online Community with Social Media class (offered through @One). In that class, college professors are introduced to the key tenets of online community and learn how elements like social presence, collaboration, and personalized learning contribute to breaking down a learner's isolation in online classes. In the class, students learn to effectively scaffold and support a student's affective learning with VoiceThread, and other social media-related tools, by participating in our own learning activities. Then then they create their own VoiceThread activity at the end of the class which fosters their social presence and demonstrates their ability to develop a collaborative learning activity.
It warms my heart to reconnect with so many of you -- sorry, I'm getting mushy here but it really is a nice feeling -- and see so many of you continue to be tirelessly dedicated to exploring new ways to meet the needs of your students, in the face of our crummy budget mess and the lack of support you find around you.
Pedagogically, our conversations flowed from how to have students share student-generated VoiceThreads with an instructor and then with an entire class to comparing VoiceThread to a discussion forum, and reflecting on how to use VoiceThread in conjunction with other assessment tools (like blogs, traditional assessments, papers, etc.) to scaffold learning up through the highest levels of critical thinking.
Next Month
I'll be making a separate blog post in the coming weeks about the day/time of my September Hangout on Air but if you'd like to plan to join us, I urge you to click here and add me to your Circles on Google+. This is the only way you'll have the option to join and participate in the Hangout (see option one below).
I am taking suggestions about what the topic should be for the September Hangout On Air -- please share your idea in the form of a comment on my blog or reach me on Twitter @brocansky. Thanks!
Also, I am interested in being crystal clear about the fact that you have ways to access each Hangout on Air. I know this is new to most of us so feel free to leave a comment here if you have a question and I'll do my best to answer it.
Option 1: Join and participate in the the Hangout on Air from Google+. If you join this way, the system's default is to display your presence via your webcam. After you have joined, you will have the option to turn off your webcam and participate via audio only or you may also participate via text chat if that's your preference. Of course, I encourage video participate when it's possible and meets your needs. There are seats for up to 10 participants (including me).
Option 2: View the live stream on the Hangout page of my blog. Each time I launch a Hangout on Air, I will embed the video stream here for live viewers to access it. The archive of the video will remain there until the new Hangout on Air occurs. Moving forward, I'll be establishing a method of storing all the links too. Unfortunately, I am unable to provide live or delayed captioning the Hangouts nor the archives.
