Dear Me: Learning from Letters to Ourselves

I was listening to NPR yesterday and heard a wonderful story about an idea Cassie Boorn had for a blog project.  She shared an open request for women in their 30s and 40s to write a letter to themselves at age 20.  The results are pretty great, as well as therapeutic and educational for all readers.  Here are a few letter excerpts:

"Thank you for working so hard to put yourself through school. Thank you for eating potato chips for breakfast while you still can. Thank you for wearing the tight dress. And shut up — your ass looks amazing." — Maggie Mason to her 20-year-old self

"Don’t stop writing poetry.  It’s so hard to start again and you have
talent, and you will miss it later on."  -Melanie to her 20-year old self

 "...that kind of love you want, that you don’t think exists? It exists. You will find it. It will find you, actually. So calm down. Not everything is such a big deal. Get some sleep and have some fun."  -32 year old Sarah to her 20-year old self

"Your college is full of amazing people and events and guest speakers, and you should really, really take more advantage of that. Also, it's not such a bad thing to get passionate about a cause, or take sides on things. I know conflict makes you a bit uncomfortable, but some things are definitely worth having an opinion on, even if it makes you and some other people a bit uneasy"  -30 year old Rachel to her 20 year old self

So, why am I sharing this here?  First, because I find it extremely moving and motivational and that's just simply a good thing to share.  Secondly, Cassie's outstanding concept seems like it would be interesting of we twisted the focus from women to educators.  For those of you who have been teaching awhile, what advice would you write to yourself when you first started teaching?  Think about how valuable your advice could be to other new teachers.

Here's my letter to myself as a new teacher:

Wow, congratulations!  You did it!  You got the job of your dreams.  It's going to be way harder than you ever imagined but also more rewarding than you could fathom. You are soon going to realize that you don't do things like the teachers you had in school and you need to embrace that uniqueness and see it as a strength.  If you think you see a better way, try it!  Teach to your own style and do what's right for your students. And don't be so afraid to let your students into the dialogue.  Once you do it, you'll be so much happier and enjoy your time with them so much more.

You will soon teach online.  The concerns you have about your students feeling disconnected are legitimate.  Follow your instinct.  You will find new tools and approaches that will blow your mind and change everything you think you know about teaching. 

Don't teach summer session.  Take a break -- MAKE yourself.

Believe it or not, changing the world isn't your responsibility.  Be genuine to yourself and your family.  Share your ideas openly and you will make changes, slowly, in the world around you.  Be more patient and embrace the ripples in the water.  They are beautiful. Don't get so frustrated when others don't see things your way.  You're a teacher; teach them. 

You will find inspiration in every student you meet, one way or another, even the students that make you want to never teach again.  You'll think about them years later and realize how much you learned from them. 

Life is a journey.  Expect change.  There will be a lot of it in your future.

Michelle, eight years later

Care to contribute your own letter to yourself as a new teacher?  Please do so in a comment!

Language is Power

Lately, I've been contemplating the words that are generally used within higher education to describe learning environments.  I wonder how differently online learning would be valued if we replaced the terms distance learning and face-to-face learning with online learning and offline learning.

What do you think?

Use Google Sites to Increase Online Success and Retention

As an online instructor, I always felt that one of my goals should be to strive to ensure all the students enrolled on day one are students who are informed about the class requirements.  When we teach in a classroom, there are always students who attend day one, read the syllabus, and then decide, for a range of reasons, the class simply doesn't work for them.  These reasons could range from, "I'll take this next semester when I have a lighter load," "just too much work,"  "I'll take it with someone else," "don't like this instructor," "sounds like a bore."  How do I know?  Because I used to do it as a college student too (come on, fess up). While budget cuts may naturally be forcing students to stay enrolled in classes they don't "prefer," I believe all students should be informed ahead of time about what to expect in their learning experience.  This strategy is an effective and realistic way to foster a culture of student success in a class and, even more powerfully, at an entire institution.

Improving retention and success in "offline" classes is important too.  But I am focusing on the online learning environment because our online classes in higher education have consistently trailed in success and retention rates.  And the demand for online classes continues to go through the roof.  I would regularly turn away up to 40 pleading students in each online class, unable to accommodate their desire to enroll.  And then in the first week of class, a flock of students would drop, leaving me feel frustrated and disappointed about all the students I turned away.  Sound familiar anyone?

Offline?  The situation wasn't nearly so bad.  Sloan-C recently cited tracked our nation's overall higher ed enrollment growth was at around 2% (including offline and online enrollments in both 2 and 4 year institutions) and our online enrollment growth was about 17% (22% in community colleges alone). Our students are naturally leaving the offline classroom in search of more online learning opportunities.  So, let's prepare them ahead of time so the learning can begin on day one. 

Here's a simple strategy to try.  Create a Google Site, using one of their new and improved templates, and use it to share a video introduction, detail course requirements and clear expectations, and upload a class syllabus. The key is to weave the site into your enrollment process so students find it.  How about creating a link in your online class schedule, connecting your class description to your Google Site?

So, students...would this help you succeed?  Instructors, what are your thoughts?  Here is my sample Google Site (which was used in this way, only in an older and less aesthetically pleasing Google Site template) to demonstrate the idea.

Note: I am no longer employed at Sierra College and I use the materials on my sample Google Site in an effort to share my own course strategies to help other online instructors improve their instructional approaches.

Painting, Power and Pedagogy: Reframing the Classroom

On May 19th, I had the pleasure of presenting at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, as the keynote for the EduSoCal10 conference.  The event was a creative venture to substitute the Educause regional conference that did not take place on the west coast this year.  I'd like to thank Crista Copp, Director of Academic Technology at LMU, and Michael Berman, CIO of CSU Channel Islands, for this speaking opportunity.  LMU has shared this presentation, in addition to many other of the day's sessions, as videos on their iTunes U site.  I have embedded my presentation below, with permission from LMU. 





My presentation explores the art historical role of innovation and risk-taking in western society, highlighting the potential of creativity in teaching to unhinge higher education from its lecture-based traditions. The presentation showcases a specific case study in teaching innovation from my community college History of Women in Art class that examines the learning effects of an instructional model that embraces active learning in the classroom, rather than passive delivery of lecture. Student feedback and survey results are included. This case study was also shared last September, 2009, as an Educause Learning Initiative webinar titled, "Teaching Without Walls."

I'd like to take this opportunity to respond more deeply and thoughtfully to one question I received from the audience.  My presentation criticizes the effectiveness of lectures as a learning activity.  I was asked (not verbatim), "Given your perspective of lectures, why, then, did you select to deliver your content via lecture?" I had considered the contradiction embedded in my lecture style as I was preparing my content but, truly, hadn't worked through it entirely.  In my response to the question, I acknowledged that contradiction but didn't have a clear answer as to why I delivered my presentation via lecture.  Now I can lucidly explain this, as I've spent some time thinking about it.

Lectures do have value in learning and I believe my case study demonstrates this fact. However, if I'm given 16-weeks with a group and my goal is to facilitate they their learning of a variety of concepts and ideas, lecture alone is not an ideal activity, especially to fill my precious face-to-face time with my learners.  Lecture has an important role in learning but it's not only piece of how we should be facilitating deep learning.  As facilitators of learning, we need to engage our audience actively in critique, debate, and discussion to promote higher levels of learning, as well as meet the "offline" expectations of our digital generation of students who are deeply informed by YouTube and TiVo who are most likely to say, "If it's passive content like a lecture is, share it with me digitally so I can watch it when and where it's convenient for me,  I can rewind and forward the content, and learn at my own pace."

When teaching a class on a campus,  I believe this moment in higher education is our moment, as "teachers"-- not deliverers of information -- to implement technology into our instruction (via web-based tools outside the classroom) to enable us to have more time to work directly with our students in a live setting -- without technology -- resulting in more dynamic, relevant, and enriching learning for our students.  "The World is Open," as Curtis Bonk has demonstrated, and our Googled, YouTubed, mobile society has capsized the relevance of a learning model that is based on showing up at a specific time and place, twice a week, for sixteen weeks to hear a professor deliver information that is available in the pocket of most students.  It is time for our classroom model to be transformed by technology, just as the rest of the world has been.

Enjoy the video (56 minutes). I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Ning Update: Pearson provides free networks for Pre-K and Higher Ed

For those of you in education who have been seeking a free alternative Ning after their April announcement to eliminate free services, you have a new option to consider today.  Pearson has announced a partnership with Ning which extends free Ning Mini networks (limit of 150 members) to educators in "North American K-12 and Higher Ed" for up to three years.

I am a little confused about the k12 element, as Ning had announced back in April that free networks would be provided to K12 through a partnership (with an unknown entity).  And the announcement from Ning today is confusing, as the opening paragraph indicates Pearson is supporting free networks for K-12 but the FAQs indicate pre-K.  So, this will need some clarification.

However, the fact that Pearson is extending free services to higher ed is loud and clear.  I'm also happy to see that Pearson is also willing to support networks that focus on professional development, connecting educators with other educators.  Here is the excerpt from the details:

Ning Networks focused on North American K-12 and Higher-Ed are eligible for free sponsorship by Pearson, including Ning Networks that facilitate learning in a classroom, best practices, educator-to-educator collaboration, or parental support. All participating Ning Networks are invited to apply for sponsorship. Participating Ning Networks will include “Brought to you by Pearson” on the top navigation bar of the Ning Network and a Pearson member profile to allow verification of private Ning Networks.

Read the full announcement here.  The program is "opt-in" so if you're interested, you must complete the application.

We may still choose to explore alternatives, of course.  But what I see here is a free service "up to three years" and we are more uncertain about the longevity of other free services.  If FREE is our criteria, this is a good option to ponder. 

Reactions? Thoughts?

New @One Online Teaching Certification Program

If you are an online instructor interested in refining your teaching skills, you may be intrigued by the new @One Online Teaching Certification Program!

I've been working with @One since January on the planning and implementation of the program and it is scheduled to launch this fall.  Affordable and convenient, in addition to being aligned with the iNACOL National Standards for Quality Online Teaching, the program has been designed to fulfill the contemporary needs of community college professors seeking the highest quality learning experiences for their students.  Prices for the program vary depending on your institutional affiliation but if you are employed by a California Community College, it may be completed for $400!

I'm excited to be part of this program because I understand the challenges of online teaching and not all institutions have the resources to provide training for instructors.  What is most exciting, to me, are the options @One has crafted into the experience.  Faculty members (or grad students!) may enroll directly in the preset curriculum path or institutions may work with @One to customize their own certification program.  Either way, the program is smart and relevant to today's teaching and learning landscape.

I will be teaching two of the core courses in the program:  Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning and Building Community with Social Media...come learn with me!

To learn more, view the video overview shared here and visit the @One Certification webpage to sign up for the interest list to receive continued updates via email. 

Online Learning: K12 and Higher Ed Collaborations

I attended the @One Online Teaching Conference at San Diego City College last week.  This is the fourth year that I've attended the conference and this year it had a new flavor...which I really enjoyed.  @One is an organization funded through a grant from the California Community College's Chancellor's Office.  I am currently working for @One, to be transparent about my personal interests in supporting their endeavors, but long before I began my working relationship for @One, I benefited from their terrific training opportunities:  I learned how to podcast from Donna Eyestone and I attended many of their free desktop seminars that showcase new ideas and national presenters in one hour synchronous (and always archived) sessions using Elluminate (actually branded as CCC Confer via the CA community college systemwide license).

The Online Teaching Conference (OTC) has become a tradition for many California community college instructors to network with colleagues, understand how other campuses are dealing with challenges and opportunities around online teaching, and pick up some hands-on experience using emerging technologies.  But this year @One joined forces with CUE (Computer Using Educators) which is primarily a K-12 national organization that has many of the same focuses of @One.  The results were quite compelling.

Allison Powell, Vice President of iNACOL (a non-profit organization of 3,100 members, focused on advocacy, support and professional development for online learning), presented the keynote on Thursday.  The keynote was refreshingly different.  For the first time, I had the pleasure of listening to students from K-12 and higher education reflect on their experiences as online students.  Wow. Why is it that hearing a student request more student interaction and instructor feedback in their online learning experiences resonates on such a more profound level than reading it in a journal?  I loved the panel and I loved hearing how focused and driven the students are to drive their own learning.  Most of them noted a frustration with slow instructor feedback, explaining that asynchronous questions usually had resolved themselves by the time the instructor got back to them with an answer.  They also sounded enthralled and motivated by learning experiences that allowed them opportunity to share thoughts, reflections and debate with other students.  Again, not surprising but so much more powerful when spoken in a student voice.

After the panel, I attended a concurrent session presented by Powell which showcased a perspective of online learning at a global level.  What did I learn?  That the US is lagging behind most all other nations in leveraging the potential of online learning to break down barriers to education, provide a reliable option for educational continuity in the face of impending disasters, engage our digital native students, and produce skills relevant to a 21st century global economy.  Why are we lagging?  Sadly, our policies and regulations are disabling our ability to collaborate.  Powell, for example, shared that 100% of teachers in Singapore are trained to teach online.  The nation has implemented a one-week per year "learn online" experience for all teachers and students, to ensure teachers continue to teach online and are prepared for dealing with disasters that could interrupt off-line learning (a new term I'm proposing in contrast to "face-to-face" learning which, I'm convinced, denigrates the personalized nature of an "online" learning experience).  Also noteworthy is the use of online learning India to education a 70% rural population that speaks 23 different languages!  Powell noted an extreme need, here in the US, to integrate online learning training into pre-service teacher curriculum to ensure our educational system is prepared to meet the continued growth in K12 online learning...which is inevitable.  27% states currently have state "virtual schools" and this number reflects a 30% growth each year since 2000.  And 75% of K12 districts use online learning for AP classes.

Effective online learning is anchored in student-centered learning with instructor-guided interaction between peers.  Imagine the potential this has to transform our nation's educational system if it becomes embedded in the foundation of our teachers' professional development.  An online classroom has no walls and invites opportunities for global collaboration, introducing paths into learning about different cultures and unique perspectives about a particular topic (or image or video).

I see online learning in K12 continuing to grow steadily with the support of national advocacy to transform our educational system and, as a result, this will have even more profound implications for higher education than the surge in online demand that we've seen in past years.  In California community colleges alone from 2007 to 2008, "off line" enrollments dropped nearly 10%  while distance education headcount grew 23%.  We cannot deny these trends and we need to be examining the shrinking enrollments in our "offline" classes, as we stress the growth in online (this conveys a different message).  With the move to online learning in K12, the "off line" college lecture classroom will need to be transformed or it will contain empty seats and one lonely professor.  It will be irrelevant to students who have been born into a digital society and educated through personalized online learning environments.  While the higher education landscape has been impacted deeply by growth in online enrollments, our pedagogical foundations haven't seen sweeping changes.  That, I believe, will the difference as we move forward.

I felt moments of energy and excitement as I saw K12 and higher education come together at this conference.  Collaboration is essential, across the board, to resolve the tensions that exist around us today as we've moved from an industrial to a global, digital society.

Claymation for Teaching and Learning

Wes Fryer shared this incredible claymation production on his blog and via Twitter recently, as a new twist on an approach to digital storytelling.  The video below tells the story of Plato's cave.  I found it very compelling and the visual story has added a new dimension to my contemplation of this classic.  In interpreting the story, does anyone else read a parallel between "the cave" and "the classroom?"  Between the "prisoners" and teachers who are afraid or unwilling to experience teaching "in the cloud" or "outside the cave?"

Enjoy.



For more information about this video or Bullhead Entertainment, go to http://platosallegory.com.

Online Teaching Conference: Last Chance to Register

The Online Teaching Conference is a regular staple for CA community college faculty and this year has joined with CUE to present even more compelling and resourceful professional development experience! Attend in person at San Diego Community College on June 17-18 or attend virtually for FREE!  Details are below.

Register by June 15th to take advantage of an immersive two days of professional development.

Conference Sessions include:

• Teaching Sustainability: Experiential Learning in Virtual Environments with William Prado, D.B.A., Carrie Spagnola Doyle, and William Prensky
• California's Online Learning Future for K12 with Mike Lawrence
• Delivering Flash Based Interactives through Your Learning Management System with Charlie Wallace
• Hybrid Online Learning in K-12: A Panel Discussion with Chris Bell, Robert Craven and Sean Williams
• Tools for Success: From Face-to-Face to Online Fast with Kara Kuvakas

Can't attend in person? Register to participate virtually. It’s free and you’ll still be able to participate in online discussions, view webcasts and more!

Screensharing with Skype

I have been a Skype user for a couple of years now but until last week I've only used it for user-to-user voice and instant messaging communications.  Last week I was invited to present for a Sacramento City College faculty development institute and was encouraged to "try something new" as a presentation tool.  So we gave Skype a try.

As a user who creates all her presentations in Apple's Keynote application (which I adore), I was excited about the opportunity to use something other than Elluminate, which is the regular web conferencing platform used within the CA community college system (rebranded as CCC Confer).  Elluminate has many terrific characteristics -- it's stable, provides great opportunities for collaboration, application sharing, etc. but for Mac users there are problems.  Elluminate does not accept Keynote slides into its shareable whiteboard nor does it accept PDFs (which Keynote exports to beautifully).  When I present in Elluminate, I am always required to first recreate my content in Powerpoint, because the Keynote to Powerpoint export format comes through a garbled mess in Elluminate.  Even then, my slides are nearly always distorted. 

The Skype screenshare feature is simple:  share your entire screen or a selection.  And, for now, it only works in calls between two single users but the Skype blog has suggested a new version will change this later this year.  I was successful at using the screenshare for my Keynote presentation, as well as using it to demo VoiceThread and Ning without needing to change between a whiteboard and application sharing.  The audio in VoiceThread didn't play, although I'd imagine there's probably a work around for this.  All in all, it was a great experiment and now I see loads of potential for educators to use Skype with students to demonstrate concepts and ideas through the screenshare feature, as well.

I am wondering if anyone has found a plug-in that records Skype video (including the screenshare feature)?  If so, please share your feedback.