iDevelop – NSCC’s Faculty Professional Development eNewsletter (3/15/2021)

Welcome to iDevelop, a weekly eNewsletter providing faculty with information about professional development opportunities at NSCC. The intent of this eNewsletter is to spotlight the various professional development events for faculty in one convenient location as well as share best practices, resources and tips related to the teaching practice. iDevelop is being brought to you by the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI).  

  

  
20 Minute Online Professional Development
The Monday Morning Mentor series will be available over the spring semester to bring you professional development in twenty minute snippets. The topic for the week of March 15th is How Can Effective Note-taking Improve Online Student Learning? The presentation is available Monday at 10:00am and is accessible through Sunday of that week. For information on accessing the presentation and supplemental materials, please view the Bulletin or the email version of iDevelop.

More information about this session (including description, topics, and learning goals) is available at https://www.magnapubs.com/product/program/how-can-effective-note-taking-improve-online-student-learning/. The complete spring 2021 schedule of Monday Morning Mentor sessions is available at http://nscclets.blogspot.com/2020/12/20-minute-mentor-online-faculty.html. 

Looking for transcripts of past Monday Morning Mentor sessions? Please email ctli@northshore.edu with the session title and we can provide you with the transcript and supplementary materials. 

Other Professional Development Opportunities

• 2021 Teaching, Learning, and Student Development Conference. The 2021 Teaching, Learning, and Student Development Conference Committee will be hosted by Quinsigamond Community College on April 9, 2021. Tools for the New Normal: Innovations in Access, Equity, and Student Success is the theme of the 2021 event. The Keynote Speaker is Dr. Danette Howard, Senior Vice President & Chief Policy Office for the Lumina Foundation. Registration is now open. Please see https://www.qcc.edu/TLSD-2021 for the schedule of sessions as well as to register. 
• 2021 Northeast OER Summit. Registration as well as a call for proposals is now open for the 4th Annual Northeast OER Summit. The Summit is free and will take place Monday, May 24 – Wednesday, May 26, 2021 virtually through University of Massachusetts Amherst Conference Services. The deadline for presentation proposals is March 21, 2021 and more information can be found at https://neoer.umasscreate.net/conferences/2021-2/2021-call-for-proposals/. If you are interested in attending, you can register at https://umass.irisregistration.com/Site/OER.    

Upcoming Webinars of Interest

• How to Effectively Use Zoom to Provide an Interactive and Engaged Learning Experience to Students (Contact North webinar) on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 from 2:00 PM to 3:00PM (EST). “Join Contact North | Contact Nord Research Associate, Dr. Ron Owston for this interactive session focusing on topics such as: engaging students through breakout rooms, promoting collaboration with whiteboards and document annotation, enhancing class presentations, including how to use free OBS Studio video software, obtaining feedback through polling and other tools, involving students through screen sharing, and organizing large enrolment classes.” (webinar description) Register at https://contactnorth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4svl3vtnQjW0rV-t854DlQ
• How to Motivate and Retain Online Learners (Contact North webinar) on Thursday, March 18, 2021 from 10:15 AM – 11:15 AM (EST) “Join Dr. Curtis Bonk, Professor of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University, for a one-hour free webinar to learn: 10 fully documented and theoretically driven motivational principles that foster interactivity and engagement online; a realistic path toward meaningful and engaging online learning; simple and flexible framework for motivating online learners that works; and research backed and proven interactive online ideas and activities. Learn how to inspire your online learners with an assembly of meaningful and purposeful learning activities. Simply put, bored and unengaged online learners will be a thing of the past.” (webinar description) Register at https://contactnorth.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_z0wAbZ2_QXyHbjzeBw-l7Q
   

Interesting Articles and Resources

• Episode 5: Online Discussion Boards: Creative Ideas to Spark Better Conversations and Engage Students (Faculty Focus Podcast), https://www.facultyfocus.com/faculty-focus-live-podcast/
• Engaging Students Online: Strategies to Enhance Your Classroom Community with Google Drawings, Google Slides, and Google Docs, https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/online-student-engagement/engaging-students-online-strategies-to-enhance-your-classroom-community-with-google-drawings-google-slides-and-google-docs/
• Three Active Learning Techniques to Try in Zoom (and How), https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/blog/2021/03/three-active-learning-techniques-to-try-in-zoom-and-how/
• Online Learning Journal: Special Issue on COVID-19, https://olj.onlinelearningconsortium.org/index.php/olj/issue/view/118
   

Share Your Teaching Resources and Professional Development Opportunities

If you have any teaching resources that you would like to share with other NSCC faculty or know of any other professional development opportunities that NSCC faculty might be interested in, please feel free to send them to ctli@northshore.edu and we will share them in the upcoming issues of iDevelop.

We hope you have enjoyed this weekly eNewsletter and would love your input. Please let us know if you have any feedback on the format, content, and resources or if there is anything else you would like to see in the eNewsletter.

Thank you,
CTLI 

The Digital Assignment: How Do You Accept Assignments?

When I look back even 5 years ago, I've seen a significant change in the ways in which faculty take assignments. I know faculty have been taking digital assignments as far back as the 1990s but it often seemed the exception whereas now it feels much more like the rule. We all remember the frantic whirlwind of getting an assignment to an instructor (often after waiting until the last minute to write it) by battling printers or lines at the printers, traffic, crowded hallways, etc just to get that paper in before the end of class, only to repeat this several times each semester.

While there are many benefits to taking online assignments (less chance of losing it, time stamps, environmentally friendly, less redundancy, etc), there are definitely some drawbacks and every person has their own method of doing it.  Below are some of the different methods of taking digital assignments that you may be using or considering using. 

EMAIL
Email is still a popular method of receiving digital assignments as it remains a standard go-to place for students and faculty alike. 
Benefits
Email is easily accessible for most people.  You don't have to dig too far down into a learning management system to find it and you can do searches to find things.  With NSCC's Gmail server, we have a large space (30 gigabytes and counting) with which to store our emails and attachments.  You will also have an exact time stamp of when the student sent it.
Drawbacks 
Organizing assignments as they come in can be challenging. Finding and sorting along with downloading each assignment can be time-consuming; especially if you intend to send them back with comments (and thus have to upload the assignments again).  Improper file formats mean more back and forth with the student.  The excuse "I sent it, you didn't get it?" can be come fairly common (whether truthful or not).
Tips

• Have students put a specific but unique word in their subject line (such as your course code) to make it easier to find and search.
• Create labels and use filters. 
• Be sure to reply to students to let them know you received their paper.  It can be a very simple response that you copy and paste into each, but it will be useful for the students to know.
• Include in your syllabus and elsewhere that this will be the method of submission for course assignments.

ANGEL DROPBOX
Every course at NSCC has an ANGEL shell and you can create dropboxes for your assignments.  Students would then log into ANGEL and go into the course shell in order to upload their assignment. 
Benefits
All of the assignments are in one place for you to see and to download in a single batch.  You can see what time students passed in their assignment and grade them all in the same place as well as use a grading rubric.  If you use ANGEL's Automate feature, you can have an email sent to students who haven't uploaded the paper by the appointed time.  Students can receive an email when their grade is posted. 
Drawbacks 
Using the dropbox still requires students to be shown what it is and how to use it within class time.  It also means setting up a dropbox for assignment to prevent confusion for students.  Also, it's best used when using the gradebook in full.  While there is batch download, you still need to upload graded papers with comments one by one.  Like email, there is still the issue of file format since students may not upload the preferred or required file format, causing delays. 
Tips

• Make sure you spend some class time (5 minutes or so) showing students how to get into ANGEL and upload their file.
• When setting up the dropbox, be sure to include instructions (including file format, due date, links to relevant resources, etc) in the message box.  
• Make use of the advance settings in the dropbox to determine when you will stop submissions, how many submissions you will take and other matters to make it more efficient for you. 
• Include in your syllabus and elsewhere that this will be the method of submission for course assignments.

GOOGLE DRIVE
Faculty are increasingly using and enjoying the benefits of Google Drive with its suite of programs including a word processing program, spreadsheet program, and presentation program that students can use and save themselves money by not buying expensive programs like Microsoft Office.
Benefits
The ability to create student folders where all of a student's work can be found.  No uploading or downloading.  Easy to comment and provide feedback to the student.  Opportunity to use text-chat or the comment feature to have back and forth discussions about assignment.  The program is already tied to the students' School email so it's easy to locate.  The Google Drive app allows for students and faculty to access the content regularly without signing in and out of the school's system.  Easy citation system.  Lots of good How-To resources to direct students towards (as well as for yourself).  One singular file format.
Drawbacks
There's a big learning curve since many students haven't used it yet.  The sharing of files and folders can get confusing.  Though there are work-arounds, if the student doesn't have consistent internet access, it can be cumbersome.  Google regularly updates or changes their suite of tools which can confuse faculty and students.
Tips

• Have the students create their own Folder that they share directly with you (and then put all of their folders into your own "Class Folder."
• Make note of the "Revision" feature under the File menu.  This can provide a history of the project being made which can be useful in understanding how a student is working.
• Include in your syllabus and elsewhere that this will be the method of submission for course assignments.

eCONTENT DROPBOX
Publishers are now creating very robust learning management systems that are accompanying their books.  These eContent web-based (and sometimes software-based or app-based) programs will have a dropbox similar to the one in ANGEL but may have some extra features. 
Benefits
If you are using the other eContent, then it is one central place to house your materials.  The eContent site will often have clear instructions on how to use the dropbox.  All of the assignments in one central location.  Some of them will allow for any file format to be uploaded and for the instructor to download in a preferred format.
Drawbacks
If you're not using much else of the eContent, this becomes more cumbersome to students (especially, if they did not buy a new book).
 Students may have access problems and not be able to complete the work or just email it instead. 
Tips

• Be sure to spend some class time familarizing your students with the environment.
• Include in your syllabus and elsewhere that this will be the method of submission for course assignments.

What methods and programs do you take digital assignments in?  What obstacles do you contend with when doing so?  What solutions have you found?  What tips would you add to the ones above?

August Instructional Technology Workshops

We hope everyone is having a great summer!

In August, Instructional Technology and Design will be sponsoring a series of workshops on a variety of topics around integrating technology into the teaching and learning environment.  All North Shore Community College faculty are welcome to attend.  The workshops will be in Danvers Berry 202 unless otherwise indicated.  Check out the workshop descriptions to learn more about each workshop.

If you are interested in attending any of the workshops, please take a moment to RSVP.

Tuesday, August 20th

9:00am to 10:15am, New to ANGEL
10:30am to 12:00pm, ANGEL Discussion Forum*
1:00pm to 2:00pm, Blogger
2:15pm to 3:30pm, Flipping the Classroom [DB304]

Wednesday, August 21st

1:00pm to 2:00pm, Communicating with your Students Virtually (Google Chat, Skype, Google
Hangout, etc.)
2:15pm to 3:30pm,  Screencasting – Creating Videos

Thursday, August 22nd

9:00am to 10:15am, ANGEL Rubrics*
10:30am to 12:00pm, ANGEL Gradebook*

Tuesday, August 27th

9:00am to 10:15am, Smart Classroom [DB304]
10:30am to 12:00pm, Encouraging Student Collaboration with Google Documents and Google Sites
1:00pm to 2:15pm, New to ANGEL
2:30pm to 3:30pm, Advanced ANGEL - RSS Feeds, Automated Agents, etc.*

Wednesday, August 28th

9:00am to 10:15am, Getting Started with Clickers [DB304]
10:30am to 12:00pm, Creating Accessible Online Course Content [DB304]
1:00pm to 2:00pm, ANGEL Assessment* [TBD]

*Note: Participants attending these ANGEL workshops should have already attended a New to ANGEL workshop or have experience in using ANGEL. 

Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at the workshops!

What workshops are you planning to attend? What other workshops would you like us to offer?

3 Steps to Video Excellence

Over the last few months I've been presenting in several classrooms where faculty were looking to introduce students to instructional technology of some sort, which usually fall into the category of digital or face-to-face presentations.  In preparing and developing for these classes, I let my mind wander a bit on how to do this in a way that balanced the students' need to understand the tools, exciting enough for them to want to use the tools, and manageable for them to actually integrate the tools.  Here is the triangulation that I developed that can be done with using nothing more than your computer (an maybe an external microphone if you don't have an internal one) and little knowledge of basic programs.  In total, this entails creating a presentation that can be engaging and easily moved into a video for later use.

This process requires 3 programs--all of which are web-based (and free).  The only obstacles are that two require registration (Google and Prezi--though if you have a North Shore Community College account that is your Google account and Prezi offers an Educational License that is free when you use your school email account) and the video can be no longer that 15 minutes.  But for videos that are going in an online environment (for either face to face or online teaching), this is good because it helps the instructor or student keep focus on what they need to communicate is a confined time.

Step 1:  Google Slides (Presentation Tool)

We're talking primarily about Google Slides here, but Powerpoint works just as well for this part.  Either way, you'll need to opt to select "Download as a Powerpoint" when you are done with the Google Presentation in order to integrate it into Prezi.   For a good primer on Google Slides, check out their help feature which has really good information.

In Google Slides, you can compose your  specific content and information.  This might include images, videos, and text.  You can think of them as your "scenes" and what you want to convey in each scene.  When completed with the content, this is also a good time to work through the presentation to get a sense of how long it will take you and the flow of it.   

Step 2:  Prezi  (Optional)
Once you have  content settled into scenes in Google Slides, you'll want to download it as a Powerpoint file (pptx).  (If you've been using Powerpoint; you are all set).  Then you'll want to go to Prezi.com and create an account.  Be sure to sign up for an educational license if you are a college student or instructor.   This will provided you with additional benefits.  Like Google, Prezi has great support and guidance for learning the tool and for something like this, you don't need to know much about Prezi beyond the basics.  

Once you have created an account, and started a new Prezi, you'll want to select the "Insert" menu and choose "Powerpoint."  You'll be given the option of how many of your slides you want to import as well as the design you want to use.  Those are aesthetic choices you will need to consider in terms of what the information is you are conveying and how it should look laid out on Prezi.  

When you have sequenced and aligned your scenes in a way that works for you, you'll want to run through the sequence from start to finish at full screen.  This will benefit you in two ways.  The first is that it will make sure everything runs smoothly.  It will also give you another opportunity to pace through it and see how it works in terms of time.  

It should be noted that this is an optional step and one that you might not be ready to tackle with your first video or two.  Prezi can be a little overwhelming if you haven't used it much or are still not comfortable with Web 2.0 tools.  However, if you're just importing your entire Powerpoint and not necessarily manipulating much of the content besides cleaning it up any glitches in the transfer, it can be easy to do in an hour or so (at least the first time).  I've added it as a step here because the moving and fading tool features allow for your Powerpoint to come alive a bit more than just a typical Powerpoint.   We'd also recommend you check out our previous post on Prezi to get a better sense if the tool if you haven't used it before.  

Step 3:  Screencast-o-matic 
 Once you have created an excellent Prezi, now you can get ready to make a video of it with the use of Screencast-O-Matic.   We're big fans here of Screencast-O-Matic as we've mentioned before. Screencast-O-matic is a free tool that only requires a brief and easy installation of a browser applet in order to run.  The program will record what's on your screen (screencast) and whatever sound you create (or you can keep it mute).  

At this point, you'll want to have a tab on your browser to open up the Screencast-O-Matic tool while also having a tab open on your browser with your Prezi that you want to record.  Set your Screencast-O-Matic to capture the full screen and then set your Prezi to full screen.  When you are ready, press the big red button on Screencast-O-Matic and begin recording.  

3 Notes about recording:

1. Don't expect to get it right the first time.  You'll probably need to restart at least once.
2. Don't aim for perfection.  Look for a conversational voice and don't worry about a few mistakes.  If you aim for perfection, you will lose your mind and lots of time trying to get it "just right."
3. Do your best to prepare a script that you work from.  This is useful not just for you to follow along but you can make the script available so that it meets accessibility requirements for your students. 

Storage
This is not so much a step but a consideration. Now that you've made a great video, the question is where to put it.  You can certainly store it in your ANGEL course.  However, I find it useful to upload it to my Google Drive and then embed it into an ANGEL page.  This allows me to also share the video out with other people and places as I see fit.  If comfortable, you can also put it on YouTube.  The one challenge if you are going to use YouTube is that you would need to create a separate account since your NSCC account can't be used for Youtube accounts. 

Here is an example of a video (also reiterating much of what's in this blog post). 

Have you tried any of these tools?  How do you like them?  What challenges have you run into?  Have you produced any interesting content that's available to see (share the link below!)?

5 Means of Handling Gmail Effeciently

Like many of us, I sometimes have a foreboding dread about opening my Gmail and being inundated with messages, both relevant and irrelevant to my work.  For some, this probably prolongs opening it and further increasing the amount of potential emails in their inbox.  

However, there are ways to mitigate email in efficient ways to save you time and the dread of opening an over-cluttered email box.  This post examines how to get your email on mobile devices, how to forward your email, how to filter and organize your email, and finally, how to more quickly respond to certain perfunctory communications.

1.  Email on Mobile Devices.  
Faculty and staff are often interested in getting their school email on mobile devices, particularly their phones.  This allows them to deal with the emails in smaller batches (a few at a time rather than scores).  If you have a mobile device that is Internet enabled and would like to receive your email on it, the best place to go to is Pipeline.  In Pipeline, one of the tabs is specifically dedicated to Gmail explaining a variety of great tools and information (The "Gmail Is Here" tab).  Specifically, the tab contains step-by-step instructions on how to program your smartphones to receive email. 
 
2.  Forwarding Gmail
Some folks don't necessarily want to deal with several different email streams into their mobile devices.  Instead, they would just prefer their email forwarded to their personal email.  The advantage to this is that at least the person knows what's in the work email box, but does not feel obligated (real or imagined) to respond right at the moment he or she receives a work-related email.  This works even better when you create filters to identify the email (see below).    

You can get the step-by-step Google guide to forwarding your NSCC Gmail account here or you can also check out this video that shows how. 

3.  Labelling Email
A great method that I use to keep my email organized is labelling.   Labels are akin to folders in other email systems.  Email can be labelled to help you quickly determine where to put that email.  For instance, I have all the newsletters, blog updates, etc that come in, labelled as "News."  I'll create folders for different projects or types of correspondence (class related, order related, etc).  As email come in, I can place it in the appropriate folder so that when I'm ready to look at that subject matter, all the emails are there waiting for me.  But what's great about Gmail is that you can create filters to automatically label certain emails (from specific addresses, emails containing certain words, or other specific attributes).  

You can get the step-by-step Google guide to labelling your NSCC Gmail account here or you can also check out this video that shows how.  

4.  Using Filters.
Filtering your email is a great way to save time and deal with only the most pressing emails as well as to organize everything coming into your inbox.  This is a great way to either see your inbox highly organized or only filled with certain types of email.  Maybe you serve on a committee; you can have any email from the people on that committee or any email containing the specific name of the committee (e.g. "Student Life Committee") be automatically tagged with a specific designation or moved out of your inbox and into label (that is, folder).  Maybe you tell your students to always include the course title when emailing you and use that as a basis to filter those emails into a Student folder.  This is a highly versatile tool for keeping that inbox from overloading you. 

You can get the step-by-step Google guide to filters for your NSCC Gmail account here or you can also check out this video that shows how. 

5.  Canned Responses
Are there certain emails that you grow tired writing (and writing again and again)?  There's a tool for that within Gmail.  Faculty can create canned responses that they can quickly send off with just a few clicks.  A good example for this is if you are taking submissions from students and want to confirm without writing the same email time and again, you can send a canned response already on hand and save yourself substantive time.  It's useful to look past your older sent emails and see what types of emails have you had to send regularly and then script those canned responses, ready to go whenever needed. 

To learn how to activate the Canned Responses in Gmail and then how to create them, check out this video.  

How do you manage your email in a way that doesn't overwhelm you? 

Extending the Classroom with Google+

Recently, Information Services made two new Google tools available through our northshore.edu Gmail accounts.  These tools, Google+ and Blogger, were implemented at the request of several faculty who wanted to experiment with them in their classes.  One of the benefits of having access to these tools from within our NSCC Google suite is that faculty and students will not have to sign-up for a separate Gmail account with an additional username and password.

Google+ is Google's social networking platform.  Faculty, staff, and students now have access to this tool from within our Google suite by clicking on the +You (or +Your Name) option in the black toolbar at the top.

Google+ has several features and one of them is Google Hangouts which is a tool that allows for video conferencing with up to ten people.

Here are just a few uses of Google Hangouts inside and outside of the classroom:

• Hold small group meetings with faculty, staff or students
• Conduct virtual office hours
• Share computer screen to walk through a web site or demonstrate a software program
• View and discuss YouTube videos
• View and/or edit Google Documents collaboratively for writing workshops or group projects
• Bring in a guest lecturer

To use Google Hangouts, you do need to set up a Google+ profile within your northshore.edu Gmail account.  You can do one-on-one video conferencing without a Google+ profile.

 

Note: When entering your birth date, make sure you do not select a year that will make you 13 years or younger. This will lock your North Shore Gmail account.

 

For more information on social media in the classroom and using Google+, please take a look at these resources:

• Social Media as a Teaching Tool
• 3 Ways to Hack Your Class with Google+ 
• 31 Ways to Use Google+
• Ways for Faculty to Use Google+
• 30 Ways Colleges Are Using Google+ Right Now

Please do not hesitate to contact us at itd@northshore.edu to brainstorm ideas for integrating Google+ and other social media into your teaching or for assistance in using any of these tools.

• Do you see a use for Google+, especially Google Hangouts, in the teaching and learning environment?  What goals might this tool help you meet?
• What challenges do you see to using Google+?
• What role, if any, does social media play in the classroom?

 

Engaging Students with Web 2.0 Tools

In June, Academic Technology and the Information Technology Fluency Across the Curriculum Committee facilitated the 2nd Annual Faculty Technology Summer Institute.  15 faculty attended the Summer Institute to learn more about student-centered uses of technology in a variety of disciplines.  Several sessions focused on various Web 2.0 and instructional technology tools that could be used to engage students inside and outside of the classroom or for student-based projects or assignments that would allow students to use technology critically and creatively.
The following resources (with information to learn more) were highlighted at the Summer Institute.
Google Documents: A free online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables students to collaborate online in real time.  Google Documents is available to everyone at North Shore Community College.

• Using Google Documents to Foster Collaboration and Communication in the Learning Environment
• Using Google Tools to Organize Student Work

Prezi: Online software that enables students to create “visually captivating presentations”.

• Prezi Basics in 3 Lessons
• 7 Things You Should Know About Next-Generation Presentation Tools

VoiceThread:  An online program that enables students to have “conversations in the cloud” around images, documents and videos.  North Shore Community College has a departmental license to VoiceThread.  Please contact ITD if you are interested in using VoiceThread with your students.

• 7 Things You Should Know About VoiceThread
• Using VoiceThread to Build Student Engagement
• Using VoiceThread to Give Students a Voice Outside the Classroom

Diigo:  An online collaborative research tool that enables students to bookmark and share Web resources.

• I’m Digging Diigo; Are You?
• Classroom Collaboration Using Social Bookmarking Service Diigo
• 7 Things You Should Know About Social Bookmarking

Screencast-o-matic:  A simple screen capture program that enables students to create online presentations with voice.

• Technology Spotlight: Screencast-o-matic
• Using Screencasting to Engage and Build Community with Online Learners
• Talking with Students through Screencasting: Experimentations with Video Feedback to Improve Student Learning

Glogster:  A Web program that enables students to create online multimedia posters.

• Glogster Step Guide

Quizlet: An online site that allows students to create and share flashcard sets.  Mobile apps are available for on-the-go studying.

• Closing in on Vocabulary Acquisition: Testing the Use of iPods and Flashcard Software to Eliminate Performance Gaps
• Revisiting Flashcards

Wordle: A web site to create word clouds to visually display prominence of words in texts.

• The Wonderful Ways of Using a Word Cloud
• Improve Writing and Reading Comprehension Using Word Clouds

Poll Everywhere: A Web-based classroom response system that allows instructors to get instant feedback from students.

• Enhancing Student Engagement with Polling

Dipity: A Web site to Create and share “interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate video, audio, images, text, links, and social media”.

• Dipity online tool helps tame timelines

If you are interested in learning how to integrate any of these resources into your classes, please contact us at itd@northshore.edu.

• Have you used any of these Web 2.0 tools?  If so, how are you using them to engage your students?
• What other Web 2.0 tools have you used in your classroom?  What are the benefits to using Web 2.0 tools?
• What challenges do you run into when using Web 2.0 tools?

Information Redirection: RSS Feeds

"Where did you find out about that?"  I get asked this question a lot about the various links, information, and ideas that I share with colleagues and friends.  My usual and most likely answer (when it's not Facebook or Twitter) is my newsfeed.  

The understatement of the century is that there is a lot of information on the Internet and more and more gigabytes being added every minute.  Finding information is hard and sometimes, it feels like the proverbial needle in the haystack.  I’ve talked before about ways in which you can channel information to you, using Google Alerts, and today’s discussion of RSS feeds is another invaluable tool for someone who needs to stay abreast of information or wants to use the latest information to help inform and shape their students’ experience.  

This video help explains just what RSS feeds are and provide a good start to the conversation.  An alternative to the video is this site, which has a good clean description of what RSS does and how it does it.

One of the most ideal places to create a feed reader is of course Google Reader.  However, we cannot use Google Reader since it isn’t part of the Google tools allotted to us with our school Gmail accounts.  But if you have your own Google Account, it tends to be the best place.  Here’s a good place to find other recommendations on RSS Feeders.  One feature in an RSS reader that I find essential is the ability to create folders to put similar feeds into.  For instance, I might group RSS feeds on “gaming and education” into one folder while I might put feeds relating to community college education into another one.  

Once you know what kind of reader you’ll be using, you’ll then want to assemble the different sources to pile into it and organize your information.  If you are looking for ideas about what to follow and why, this site offers 100 different uses of RSS feeds.  

So What can using RSS do for your classroom?

• You can require students to subscribe to a host of sites much like some instructors require students to subscribe to newspapers.  These feeds could be a different materials they need to consider before coming to class or sources they must consider in constructing a project. 
• If you have students create blogs, you can use an RSS reader to feed all of their blogs into it, so you don't have to go to each individual one.
• You can create a collection of RSS feeds within Angel (under Resources) and require students to draw upon those articles for class discussions, homework, or other class-relevant material.

For more information, you might also want to check out:

• 7 Things You Should Know About RSS Feeds
• RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators

 
Have you used RSS Feeds?  What do you like/dislike about them?  Have you used them (or considered using them) in class?  What other ways do you foresee this being useful for teaching and instruction?

Freeing The Course Part 1: Course Programs

We know that the cost of education is high and continues to escalate for various reasons; even at community colleges.  This is problematic since we do serve as a gateway of economic and intellectual opportunity for a wide range of students who might not get into or finish college without us.  But costs are prohibitive to many people and in digital age, finding ways of making class and class tools cheap is quite important.  So this will be a short series of posts on Freeing Up Course Programs, Course Readings, Course Delivery, and Course Extras filled with great resources for you to use in your course that are entirely free for you and your students.

Course Programs
Let’s first tackle course programs.  A college student in the 21st century needs access to a computer but does not necessarily need all the associative (and costly) software that goes with it.  It’s quite prohibitive for students at times and frustrating.  They’ve spent an ample amount of time, energy, and money getting into college, now they need to expend even more.  So let’s take a look at some of the options afforded students who don’t have or can’t afford the software that faculty frequently rely on.

The Office Suite
As more and more instructors grade on a computer, Microsoft Word documents and other Microsoft programs tend to become a standard, if only so the instructor doesn’t have to open files in a variety of programs.  However, Office doesn’t have to rule the classroom nor be the program used by students.  Many programs now allow the student to Save File As a different document than the default file that the program creates.  So if the student is using iWorks on a Mac, they can still save their file as a .doc/.docx (Word Document file type) or a .rtf (Rich Text Format; a universal word processor file type).  So it’s useful to make sure you communicate to your students about the “Save As” feature if they are using different programs to make sure they submit assignments in the right file type.  But when in doubt, the answer can be a Google-search away.  Typing in "convert *file type a* into *file type b* free" and you'll often find a host of resources that can help you (or your student) properly convert the file.
 
But what if the student doesn't have any of those standard programs?  There are two free programs out there that are worth investigating and mentioning to your students.  The first is OpenOffice.  This is a free suite of programs, which includes word processor program, spreadsheets, presentations, databases and drawings.  It’s a bit watered-down from Microsoft Office, but not in ways that will be relevant to students writing papers or creating presentations.  What’s also convenient about this program is that though it has its default file type (.odt), the file can still be saved in other format types (such as a .doc) using the Save As feature.

And of course, there’s also GoogleDocs as we’ve mentioned before on this blog.  Again, like OpenOffice, GoogleDocs allows you to save in different format types and gives you access to largely the same suite of tools in Microsoft Office and even some extras (such as its survey tool and its sharing options).  However, the major drawback with GoogleDocs is that it’s not as accessible if there isn’t an internet connection.

One last note.  It’s important to not only inform your students about these, but to also give them a range of resources on how to use them.  It’s not enough to expect them to just “get it.”  We pretend that students know technology better than us, but many don’t and need additional guidance.  Pretending they do displaces responsibility or opportunity to work with the student. This guidance can come in the form of written, audio, or visual guides on how to do the task at hand.  And remember that you don’t have to start anew.  For instance, check out this playlist we’ve created on how to use OpenOffice.org or GoogleDocs.  The important piece is to make sure you help arm the students to know what they need to do in order to successfully fulfill the assignment in the right format.

Keep an eye out for the next post which will focus on finding free course content.

• What software programs are essential for your class and do you know of free analogues available out there?
  How is digital technology aiding in making the course and teaching financially cheaper?

Using Google Documents to Foster Collaboration and Communication in the Learning Environment

Are you looking for an easier way to promote group work among your students? Do you want to better facilitate peer review and editing in your classes? Do you wish you could see your students’ progress in a project before receiving the finished assignment? Do you want your students to participate in a shared knowledge development experience? Are you looking for simple and efficient ways to collect information from your students such as feedback on the course? If so, then you might want to take a closer look at Google Documents to see if this technology can help you in meeting your pedagogical needs.

Google Documents is one of the Google Apps for Higher Education that all faculty, staff and students at North Shore Community College have access to through their Gmail account. According to Google, Google Documents is “an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables” faculty and students to “create, store and share documents instantly and securely, and collaborate online in real time.”

Inside of Google Documents, faculty and students can easily create and share documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms and drawings. Google Documents can also serve as online storage where you can upload and download already existing documents in a variety of file formats including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files along with image, audio and video files. Documents stored in Google Documents are available from any computer with Internet access.
The benefits of using Google Documents are many. Documents created and stored in Google Documents can be easily shared with anyone. Sharing permissions allow you to share a document with individual faculty or students at North Shore College Community, with the entire North Shore College Community, or with the entire world as a public document. When working in a document, you can see the real time edits and comments from other collaborators. You also have the ability to chat with collaborators within the document. As you edit a document, you can leave comments and have a discussion with other editors about the changes. A revision history is available for all Google Documents which allows you to review drafts, restore previous versions, and see what changes each collaborator has made. This provides accountability for students involved in team projects. Google Documents are stored securely on the Web and you can access and edit your documents from anywhere at any time. This minimizes the need to email documents to yourself and allows you to have a backup of your documents. And finally, documents can be saved as Word files, presentations can be saved as PowerPoint files, and spreadsheets can be saved as Excel files so students can create and submit to you files in a Microsoft format.

For more information on Google Documents, please visit this resource.

Or visit our YouTube Playlist for some good walks-throughs and explanations:
If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of using Google Documents as a collaboration and communication tool or are interested in integrating it into your classes, please feel free to contact Instructional Technology and Design at itd@northshore.edu.

• Do you think Google Documents has potential as a learning/teaching tool?
• Have you used Google Documents in the classroom? If so, in what ways? If not, do you see any uses for Google Documents in the classroom? How might you use Google Documents?
• What challenges might you or your students encounter in using Google Documents?

Google Alert for Faculty and Students

I’m a big fan of Google Alert.  Over the years, it’s delivered valuable information into my inbox time and again; saving me time, providing me with leads, and on occasion, some rather curious pieces of information.  

So what is Google Alerts?  It’s one of the many different services offered by Google, which is accessible to faculty and students within their school email accounts.  To access it, you can simple go to this address or when in your School Email, click on the "More" link at the top of the page.  This will drop down a menu and you'll want to select the link "Even more".  This will bring you to the Google Products page.  Scroll down the page to "Specialized Search" and look for "Alerts."  

Once on the Google Alerts page, you're ready to start using it.  You have a few options.    

Search Query
Enter the word or phrase what you want to Google to send you an alert about.  Choose a singular word or if it is a phrase, surround it with quotation marks. 
 
Result Type
You can choose specifically where one the internet that Google will specifically look for your term; newspapers, blogs, video sites, discussion boards, etc.
 
How often
This option allows you to control how many times Google will send you emails about its search.
 
How many
The quality and quantity of results that you are looking for.  Do you want everything Google finds or just the more respectable results? 
 
Deliver to
Which email address should this be delivered to.
 
Fill all of that out, press "Create Alert" and you have your first Google Alert.  Once you have created a Google Alert and want to change it, all you have to do is go to Manage Your Alerts and change and delete them as you desire.  

So why use Google Alert?
Research is the easiest answer.  This allows you to stay atop of certain pieces of information or ideas out in the Internet and bring them to your mailbox, rather than you having to scour the internet to find them.  
 
Many, including myself, use it to keep track of where and when their names come up in print.  Having a Google Alert on your name lets you know if you or your work is being referenced in some capacity.  

It's also a nice tool to use throughout the semester, to bring you fresh news stories about a topic matter within your class, so you can provide students with some of the more recent events/information about your subject matter.

Currently, here are some of my Google Alerts:

• Research topics:  "video games and education"
• What's going on in my community:  "Peabody, Massachusetts"
• What's going on at my employment:  "North Shore Community College"
• Cultural events I might be interested in, "book signing Massachusetts"

How about using Google Alert in the classroom?
There are some fun and interesting ways you could use this in the class.  
 
Assign each student one or more specified key word, event, topic, person, etc to trace and track throughout the semester by using Google Alert and then compose an essay, report, presentation, timeline, etc based upon their findings.  

• What ways do you think you could use Google Alerts for your own professional development?
• What ways do you think you could use Google Alerts for the classroom?
• How could this flow of information improve or help you?