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Twitter
Twitter account
Diigo
Diigo Account
Linked In
https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/lynn-okanski/27/228/979
PollEverywhere
https://www.polleverywhere.com
Blackboard Collaborate
(in FOL LMS)
Skype/Google Docs discussion
YouTube video link
Tax Freedom Day
Podcast link
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/vdgllry/ndvdls/srs-prprngrtrn2b-eng.html
Office Mix PowerPoint multi-media presentation
Setting Goals
Office Mix PowerPoint multi-media presentation
Academic Integrity
Qualtrics survey
Welcome to Financial Services
Blog
My Learning Blog
Grandma Lynn Learning Blog
Tuesday 15 December 2015
Friday 11 December 2015
Ready Made Content
Searching for ready-made content online in my subject area
was an exercise in frustration. Most of the material is in print form, much of
it is commercial, and I found nothing of a level I would want to present online
to students.
In a classroom, I have typically used ready-made content to
increase the entertainment value of class, but I’m not confident some of my
uses of video content in class was not a breach of copyright. Teaching online
offers the benefit that I can hyperlink these items with impunity. However, I
would want to know they offer something that is truly valuable. An online
student, when bored and needing a break, has the option of walking away at any
time.
Here's my link to a video I do like to use in tax class, as a way to add a little lightness, and introduce the topic of taxation with a little Canadian flare: Tax Freedom Day
There are more recent versions of this clip, however, they do not appeal to my '60's folk-music sensibility!Here's my link to a video I do like to use in tax class, as a way to add a little lightness, and introduce the topic of taxation with a little Canadian flare: Tax Freedom Day
I’m convinced that creating our own content offers a lot
more potential to give on-target video, but I think we need to develop our
ability to put out things quickly and easily so that it’s not an excessive
burden, and we are not tempted to leave old, stale content on our sites.
One of the issues to think about as we develop online
courses is who will be the teacher? I don’t think I would want to use video
content produced by another teacher. I’m not sure another teacher would want to
use video content produced by me.
These are dilemmas going forward.
Lynn
Video Content with Office Mix and PowerPoint
During week 6 of our ION course we were challenged to
produce some video content for a course. This is a completely daunting task if
you haven’t done it before. And, it did take an inordinate amount of time. One
classmate reported spending 7 hours producing a 7 minute video. My ratio was
similar.
However, the most time-consuming aspect was NOT figuring out
the software. I chose Office Mix that adds into PowerPoint. I liked the idea
that I already use PowerPoint routinely, and hopefully the Mix add-on would be
easy to use.
In fact, it takes about two minutes to figure out how to use
it. Simply create your PowerPoint, go to the Mix tab, and start recording with
standard play, pause, and review buttons. The time is in the production
details. It’s alarming to watch your own facial expressions, especially paused
in bizarre contortions. The lighting isn’t right. The fish tank is gurgling.
The parrot is chirping. The sun is shining in all the windows. The camera is
too high, too low, too near, too far. Microphone is or is not working well. And
then speaking. Somehow it seems unacceptable to have a natural speech pattern
with various imperfections, and we want it perfect.
I think most of the production details will be ironed out
with experience – we’ll have the location, positions, lighting, etc worked out.
As for the perfect speaking…I think that in the interest of actually getting
anything done, ever, we have to allow ourselves to simply be ourselves, and accept
the imperfections. It’s hard to think about a student who might replay our
awkward moments over and over, but so be it.
For all my classmates who posted onto YouTube, I applaud
your bravery!
Here's my first ever video content: Office Mix video
Here's my first ever video content: Office Mix video
I am very pleased with the Office Mix product. It produces a professional, attractive product. All evidence to the contrary is user-related!
Lynn
Survey Tools
Spurred by this week’s assignment, I threw myself again into
learning a new piece of technology – Qualtrics survey tool.
In anticipation of
taking this course, I used PollEverywhere in a conference presentation. The
stakes were very high as failure would have been professionally embarrassing
for me. However, it turned out fairly simple. I took a few hours to learn how
to do it, develop my questions, tinker with the look and feel, and then test. I
tested over and over and made sure I had worked out all the wrinkles before my
presentation.
One wrinkle I did not anticipate – my audience. Financial
advisors are often said to be 59 year old men, on average. It turns out some of
them have never sent a text, don’t know how to do it, and it required about 5
minutes of ordering younger participants around the room to get people set up on their phones to send and receive texts! The
result, however, was powerful for me – clear feedback from the audience on
their experience in the areas I was discussing in my talk.
New learning
is always invigorating, and there's an additional surge of energy when you venture into an area with apprehension and experience some success. I was surprised at the number of friends and family – similar demographic
as above – who expressed openly hostile and negative attitudes about these technology
tools. In reference to social media, one person said she was “beyond it”. In my
new enthusiasm, I would express it a different way.
I have found that there is some transferable knowledge from
one tool to the next. It’s not a completely new navigation. Gradually I feel I’ve
been in this neighbourhood before, or a similar neighbourhood.
Qualtrics was no exception. What a beautifully professional
product emerges from my basic inputs. As I type in questions, I realize just
how many things I want to know about my audience, and it is exciting to think
that I can ask for this feedback in such a simple way. I also think it's powerful for students to feel their feedback is heard and wanted.
Qualtrics was nearly immediate in terms of being able to set
up a survey and run it right away. Two tiny, simple, intuitive tweaks made it
more attractive visually.
There are many more options to manage the survey, but what I
am enjoying with many of these technologies is that they seem to be so simple
to start and run with. You can improve and redesign at your leisure, but
meanwhile you are up and running! In the past, it seemed very much the
opposite. The startup instructions were so dense and detailed it discouraged
the first attempt.
Thank you to all the designers of these wonderful
technologies!
Lynn
My Blog on Blogging
As a child – grade 5 – 6 – 7, for example – I took every
opportunity to have penpals. There were clubs at school, and I would exchange
addresses with people I met on family vacations, even briefly. It was fun for
me to get to know someone far away, and think about what to tell them about myself
and my activities. I also kept a journal of sorts.
In high school my family moved 1000 miles away. At this time
there was no internet, no email, texting, Facebook or any means other than “snail
mail” to keep in touch. Long distance telephone was considered expensive. I
wrote and wrote and wrote, and I loved getting letters in return. This took
away from journaling time.
During university I resumed my journal, and reduced letter
writing.
In my adult years I kept buying books with lovely paper to
write in, but most of them remained empty. Eventually I re-established penpals,
this time via email.
All this to say, you would think I would love blogging! It
appeals to me in every way, and I love the soft colours I established for my
page. And yet I have failed to maintain my blog. Something blocks me from
posting.
I note the inverse relationship between letter-writing and journaling,
and further I believe I have replaced all with more talking in recent years! I talk
a lot more than I used to.
Why maintain a blog? I’m not entirely sure. I think a blog
with appropriate tags might attract like-minded individuals to read, and
respond, and this would be a penpal relationship of sorts, but shared with
others. I’m sure friendships develop, and communities share ideas with each
other. An uncle of mine ended up in an online community that started with a
common health concern. In their searches, they all found a certain blog where
they were able to connect. It became a great source of understanding, support,
shared information, and friendship. One year they all travelled to a US point
to meet together.
It might serve only me – a record of my early thoughts and
development on issues. A way to reflect and consider my information and views.
This all takes time. I do think it’s worthwhile, and yet I have not done it.
I think I have been “shy” to put my thoughts into a public
place. This is something I have thought about quite a bit during this course,
and it is making me more willing to “put myself out there”. I posted a photo on
Facebook. I’m writing this blog.
Lynn
Monday 16 November 2015
Synchronous Communication
Until now, I have considered online courses to be a low
quality substitute for face to face classes – “real” school. Remember “mail
order degrees”? Even our school is sugar-coating the concept. As we are
assigned online course developments, we are reminded that some students aren’t
able to attend face to face classes (the implication being that f2f is a
superior delivery model), so we will offer this to a different market.
My online course development is primarily asynchronous,
offering a variety of content uploaded to the site, a series of assignments
submitted to drop boxes, discussion groups around the assignment submissions,
online quizzes, and remote proctored final tests. I felt comfortable with this
format based on my experience as a student in online courses. As a student, I
concede I would not take the course if it wasn’t available on my own time in an
online format. And, the asynchronous platform suited me well as a learner.
This week turned all that around for me! Participating in a
short Collaborate session in which I could chit chat with other students before
the class began (typing in chat function, or with audio/visual), and then
finding myself fully engaged with the range of audio and visual functions
presented was an amazing experience. I saw that connection and a sense of fun
and belonging could exist in the online environment, and that it is greatly
enhanced with the addition of a synchronous option. I am very excited at the possibilities
for students who are struggling alone with an assignment and just need a little
direct help over a small barrier – suddenly this is possible in an online
course in a way that I hadn’t imagined.
Most of my classmates are in the US and seem familiar with
these tools. I have taken some training previously but haven’t had motivation
to use them. Now I am excited to offer them even in my face to face class. This
way, I’ll be more practiced when the time comes to deliver an online course.
Later in the week, I used Skype along with a google doc.
This allowed my partner and I to edit a document simultaneously, at the same
time as we chatted in a sidebar, and could see and hear each other via Skype. It
worked seamlessly, and once again, was fully engaging as there were a variety
of things to be reading as we chatted and were able to see each other.
As a stark contrast, one day later I participated in an
old-style conference call. I dialed in, entered my passcode, waited for other
voices to join, and finally sat on the phone for 45 minutes with 6
participants. We referred to a hard copy document we had, but apart from that
we had no visual content to the call. It was functional, but most certainly did
not build rapport or a feeling of team the way the other tools had.
It's exciting to be learning to use these tools.
Lynn
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