Last week, as part of the Center for Teaching and Learning
Assessment's annual "Teaching and Learning Conference," Academic
Technology hosted an eContent Fair for faculty to meet with different
publishers to discuss and discover what kinds of resources were
available to them. Over the two days, we had four different publishers
talking about what they have available for a wide range of disciplines.
Cengage, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, and Pearson had representatives to talk with faculty about what more these is to offer besides the traditional textbook.
Some
of our reasoning in offering this to faculty and moving forward to do
this again in the future is the fact that publishers have come a long
way in what they have to offer faculty. Years ago, when faculty thought
of ebooks in lieu of textbooks, they mainly thought of a digital form
of the textbook either as a website or .PDF. But the fact is, the
resources that publishers provide for students and faculty are rather
substantial. As faculty, we struggle with assigning an expensive
textbook that will be financial hard to justify for many students,
especially after having paid for the class. But I think if you want to
get the most out of the price they have to pay for the textbook, it
would be beneficial to make use of the digital resources that many
publishers have to offer.
So what are some of these resources
available? What follows are some of the highlights. Not all publishers
have all the features mentioned, but many have a good range of them and
it’s worth contacting the publishers to find out what resources you
will be able to use.
Enhanced Content
With
many of the ebooks today, it’s not just the text in digital format, but
more content can be added or even customized for particular purposes.
Assigning specific chapters, supplemental links, primary sources,
additional videos and sound clips can take a few minutes and clicks to
establish the course materials in the order you want them
accomplished. Faculty can add their own customized content such as
instructor notes, added links, and files.
Interaction
Not only can faculty annotate the text, but the tools are present for
students to annotate their readings with highlight and virtual sticky
notes. This encourages students to interact and engage their text in
ways that older ebooks certainly couldn’t. Beyond this, some ebooks
come with additional programs that might include games (crosswords
puzzles, virtual flash cards, trivia questions, etc) and some even have
simulations and video games that make students work through different
problems or projects (such as a virtual body to explore in an anatomy
class). Discussion forums can also be created (often with suggestions
for questions by the publisher or with the faculty’s own choice).
Evaluation
Many of the ebooks provide a pool of hundreds of questions per chapter
to create quizzes and tests. Some of the publishers have created
adaptive software and ranked the questions so that students will get
increasingly hard questions as they are more successful—increasing the
challenge or meeting the student at where he/she is at. When used as
formative evaluations to determine a student's understanding, quizzes
like these can be highly useful for learning. But beyond standard
quizzes, many ebooks offers other useful elements. Papers and major
assignments can be submitted and graded online by the faculty who can
draw upon a pool of comments generated by the instructor in present and
previous courses. With everything centered in the portal for the
course, students can chart their progress and learn about where their
performance is lacking or where they need more assistance.
In the
large picture, the usefulness of eContent material is to get the most
out of a significant investment for both you and the students.
Additionally, the various materials (and means of tracking) allow for
the instructor to have a much clearer sense of what the students are
learning and where they are struggling. This can mean better results in
the class as you can better tailor your time with students in
accordance with where they need the most help. If you are further
interested in eContent for a book you are already using or in a text
you’re interested in using, click through to the publishers, see what
they have to offer, and contact a rep.
Do you use econtent? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages?
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Books We’re Talking About: The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map
So during winter break, I caught wind of an interesting idea with
regards to syllabus. What if you made a more visually-oriented
syllabus to emphasize information and step away from the text-overload
that syllabi (particularly mine) tend to be. Having finished my
syllabus with hours to spare, I decided to spend those hours visually re-creating the syllabus.
I liked the finished product, but it wasn’t much more than just adding
glitter and flare, but not necessarily doing much with how I used the
visual dynamic to enhance learning and the student’s experience. I
planned on still using it, but wasn’t feeling the full potential of the
visual syllabus. But then I read The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating Your Course by Linda B. Nilson (Jossey-Bass, 2007).
Within the first chapter of this book, I already had a clearer picture of just what I should be aiming to do with a graphic syllabus that I was missing before. Nilson’s premise is clear and easy to understand (albeit, challenging to fully execute). Given that many people absorb much information visually and contextually, it doesn’t make entire sense to have a syllabus that is segmented into its different silos of: objectives, goals, assignments/assessments/readings. Her goal is to help the reader consider the ways in which one can depict how all these parts of the course fit together in the syllabus.
This is useful for two reasons. The first is that it helps the faculty member have a clearer sense of what he/she is assigning in terms of work and make sure it explicitly connects to objective and goals. This grants a clearer vision of what the instructor is doing. The other reason is that it gives students a stronger context of how it all fits together. Beyond just the “why do I have to take this course” questions, a graphic syllabus can instantly connect the student with context that clarifies questions of why as well as better understanding how information fits together for their growth within the course.
Nilson delves into a variety of issues and concerns about how to go about it and illustrates that there is good variation about how to do it. She provides readers with thoughts about how and why one might do it, but shows there are many ways to go about it. In particular, she provides dozens of graphic syllabi from previous courses (her own and others) in various disciplines to help stimulate ideas across departments. To help readers better envision their own syllabus in a new light, she regularly compares what a text syllabus looks like in contrast to the (same) graphically-enhanced syllabus.
Within the first two chapters, she already had me hooked and thinking differently about my own courses. I’m imagining a comic-book syllabus for my comic book course that would be “teaching” as one progresses through the different elements of the syllabus. But immediately, it helped me to reconsider that American Literature course I had created my first visual syllabus for. I’ve found that I like doing American Literature 1 by addressing different types of writing and moving through the significant pieces in chronological order. This works in many ways but is limiting because students will lack context (or forget) of how the different types of writings fit with one another. By thinking about Nilson’s ideas, it allowed me to craft something more meaningful for the students as you can see from the impromptu outline below.
And that’s probably the other element that I like about Nilson. She emphasizes that one does not need to be an artist to creating a graphic syllabus—nor does one need numerous programs and equipment. I did the image below in Excel. Both MS Word and Powerpoint have outline/mapping tools that you can utilize and master very quickly. You can go high-end (and she shows examples of such), but you can still be graphically rich and simplistic in the types of visual you use (Good thing too—I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler!).
One final consideration with approaching a graphic syllabus (beside, “read the book!”). I would still recommend gathering the material together in a textual format initially. That is, first create your standard textual syllabus and save a copy of it before proceeding to create a graphic syllabus. One big reason and one small reason for this. The big reason is that you want to make sure your syllabus is accessible to all students. Therefore, a student who cannot access the visual syllabus might need the text made available and the graphic elements may not be useful. The other reason for composing it as text before moving into graphics is that you’ll have a great “before” and “after” examples to share with your colleagues (and maybe even us here on the blog!).
Within the first chapter of this book, I already had a clearer picture of just what I should be aiming to do with a graphic syllabus that I was missing before. Nilson’s premise is clear and easy to understand (albeit, challenging to fully execute). Given that many people absorb much information visually and contextually, it doesn’t make entire sense to have a syllabus that is segmented into its different silos of: objectives, goals, assignments/assessments/readings. Her goal is to help the reader consider the ways in which one can depict how all these parts of the course fit together in the syllabus.
This is useful for two reasons. The first is that it helps the faculty member have a clearer sense of what he/she is assigning in terms of work and make sure it explicitly connects to objective and goals. This grants a clearer vision of what the instructor is doing. The other reason is that it gives students a stronger context of how it all fits together. Beyond just the “why do I have to take this course” questions, a graphic syllabus can instantly connect the student with context that clarifies questions of why as well as better understanding how information fits together for their growth within the course.
Nilson delves into a variety of issues and concerns about how to go about it and illustrates that there is good variation about how to do it. She provides readers with thoughts about how and why one might do it, but shows there are many ways to go about it. In particular, she provides dozens of graphic syllabi from previous courses (her own and others) in various disciplines to help stimulate ideas across departments. To help readers better envision their own syllabus in a new light, she regularly compares what a text syllabus looks like in contrast to the (same) graphically-enhanced syllabus.
Within the first two chapters, she already had me hooked and thinking differently about my own courses. I’m imagining a comic-book syllabus for my comic book course that would be “teaching” as one progresses through the different elements of the syllabus. But immediately, it helped me to reconsider that American Literature course I had created my first visual syllabus for. I’ve found that I like doing American Literature 1 by addressing different types of writing and moving through the significant pieces in chronological order. This works in many ways but is limiting because students will lack context (or forget) of how the different types of writings fit with one another. By thinking about Nilson’s ideas, it allowed me to craft something more meaningful for the students as you can see from the impromptu outline below.
And that’s probably the other element that I like about Nilson. She emphasizes that one does not need to be an artist to creating a graphic syllabus—nor does one need numerous programs and equipment. I did the image below in Excel. Both MS Word and Powerpoint have outline/mapping tools that you can utilize and master very quickly. You can go high-end (and she shows examples of such), but you can still be graphically rich and simplistic in the types of visual you use (Good thing too—I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler!).
One final consideration with approaching a graphic syllabus (beside, “read the book!”). I would still recommend gathering the material together in a textual format initially. That is, first create your standard textual syllabus and save a copy of it before proceeding to create a graphic syllabus. One big reason and one small reason for this. The big reason is that you want to make sure your syllabus is accessible to all students. Therefore, a student who cannot access the visual syllabus might need the text made available and the graphic elements may not be useful. The other reason for composing it as text before moving into graphics is that you’ll have a great “before” and “after” examples to share with your colleagues (and maybe even us here on the blog!).
- Have you tried a graphic syllabus? How did it go?
- Are you interested in attempting a graphic syllabus? What would you need to do it?
Monday, May 7, 2012
Freeing The Course Part 4: Assignments
In this final entry on freeing the course (check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3),
we are looking at free tools and resources relating to assignments.
These might be ways of changing up assignments, making them more
interactive, or even in some cases, easier to evaluate and access. Many
of these resources we’ve mentioned before in different capacities, but
they are definitely great for thinking about assignments as well.
GoogleDocs
Yes, GoogleDocs, again. Whether you want them to develop a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, you can use GoogleDocs for the space to be used. You can also create surveys and possibly quizzes if you want to engage your students further. What’s great about GoogleDocs is its collaborative nature and the ways you (or your students) can share files coupled with the document history where you can directly compare differences between older and newer versions.
Diigo
Diigo is a familiar tool on this blog and rightly so. It’s a social bookmarking site where an instructor could create a group for the class. Herein, they could add substantive links related to course topics along with descriptions and explanations of what the sites were. Another idea would be for the instructor to incorporate a large range of links and assign the students different links to go to within Diigo and annotate. Diigo allows for individuals or groups to annotate their bookmarks, thus allowing for an engaging dialogue among the students about a site’s content.
Wikis
Yet another great tool we enjoy on this blog, Wikis can be used in a variety of ways. Whether you’re sending students to create an entry on Wikipedia itself, or encouraging them to make a course notebook in wiki format, there’s some great ways instructors can make students creators and owners of the course content.
Glogster
Glogster is a free digital posterboard that allows the user to put up images, text, sound files, and videos all integrated into a collage. It’s a useful tool as a compliment to inclass presentations or as a means of online presentations.
Blogs
Blogs are great for assignments. There are many different ways of using a blog, but there are several that seem to do well.
Screen-cast-o-matic
We’ve talked about this tool before as a teaching tool, but it could also be used as an assignment for students to create a narrated presentation utilizing course materials or research. It’s a quick tool to learn and faculty could assign students to develop different videos around course concepts. Faculty could also assign students to create a virtual tour of the internet to present their research. Audacity is a similar tool, though it’s only for audio recording, but faculty might assign similar projects.
So what other tools out there help you to free up the course? We’re always looking for new ideas and tools, so please let us know.
GoogleDocs
Yes, GoogleDocs, again. Whether you want them to develop a document, spreadsheet, or presentation, you can use GoogleDocs for the space to be used. You can also create surveys and possibly quizzes if you want to engage your students further. What’s great about GoogleDocs is its collaborative nature and the ways you (or your students) can share files coupled with the document history where you can directly compare differences between older and newer versions.
Diigo
Diigo is a familiar tool on this blog and rightly so. It’s a social bookmarking site where an instructor could create a group for the class. Herein, they could add substantive links related to course topics along with descriptions and explanations of what the sites were. Another idea would be for the instructor to incorporate a large range of links and assign the students different links to go to within Diigo and annotate. Diigo allows for individuals or groups to annotate their bookmarks, thus allowing for an engaging dialogue among the students about a site’s content.
Wikis
Yet another great tool we enjoy on this blog, Wikis can be used in a variety of ways. Whether you’re sending students to create an entry on Wikipedia itself, or encouraging them to make a course notebook in wiki format, there’s some great ways instructors can make students creators and owners of the course content.
Glogster
Glogster is a free digital posterboard that allows the user to put up images, text, sound files, and videos all integrated into a collage. It’s a useful tool as a compliment to inclass presentations or as a means of online presentations.
Blogs
Blogs are great for assignments. There are many different ways of using a blog, but there are several that seem to do well.
- The instructor writes the blog entries (as kind of mini-lessons or making connections from content to the world at large) and the students must comment.
- Students create their own blogs and then comment on one another’s blog.
- One blog is created for the class and different students must post about related material over the course of the semester.
Screen-cast-o-matic
We’ve talked about this tool before as a teaching tool, but it could also be used as an assignment for students to create a narrated presentation utilizing course materials or research. It’s a quick tool to learn and faculty could assign students to develop different videos around course concepts. Faculty could also assign students to create a virtual tour of the internet to present their research. Audacity is a similar tool, though it’s only for audio recording, but faculty might assign similar projects.
So what other tools out there help you to free up the course? We’re always looking for new ideas and tools, so please let us know.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Freeing The Course Part 3: Course Delivery
We’re back again with Part 3 of Freeing the Course. Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 and be on the eye for our future pieces.
By course delivery, we’re talking about what can produce and provide for your students that goes beyond the readings. This may include videos (externally or internally created), podcasts or lecture recordings, or even the presentation programs that communicate your teaching in the classroom.
Video Resources
There are a plethora of video resources Video resources out there for you to take advantage of including Learner.org, YouTube.com/EDU, TED (and check out their latest feature on flipping the classroom option), and of course, the Library’s FilmOnDemand. For more information about these resources, check out this previous post on Video Resources for Your Classroom.
However, here’s one quick reminder about using videos in and outside the classroom. Always be sure to provide a clear frame for watching the video and a clear sense of what they should be doing with the video—that is, how they should integrate it into the other course material. Students need to be directed to what to focus on in order for videos to work the best. Instructing them to watch the video but not making clear what they are watching for can make follow up discussions lackluster and problematic.
Presenting Unique Content
Rather than use external material, if you want to create your own course material to deliver to students, there are some great resources available for that too.
We’ve talked about Screen-Cast-O-Matic on this blog before and it’s because it’s a great (and easy!) tool that allow faculty to create narrated screencasts (of powerpoints, websites, etc). It takes minutes to learn and then, faculty can focus their time and energy on thinking about how they want to present the material for their audience.
Audacity is a free sound recording program that allows users to make recordings for whatever purpose they might find. In particular, you can make mini-lecture podcasts for your students that recap the day’s lessons or cover other material.
Prezi is a fun presentation tool that provides a 3-Dimensional infinite canvass for you to connect your ideas. The fascinating element about Prezi is that it allows you to visually display relationships in ways that are not as well executed in programs like Powerpoint. Additionally, you can integrate images and videos into this as well as convert them in PDF for your students if you choose to. Check out our YouTube playlist that explores Prezi.
Finally, there’s Google Presentation. It has many of the features of Powerpoint, but again, is free. You can choose to download it as a Powerpoint file if you choose or even PDF. You’re also able to share it easily with students. Where this also wins out against Powerpoint is that if you share it with students, you can utilize the “Comment” feature to spur a discussion around the Powerpoint or encourage students to annotate the powerpoint about what they found useful or care to elaborate on.
For our final post, we’ll be exploring communicate and course extras that you might consider as you move forward.
What other free resources do you use in order to delivery the course content to your students?
By course delivery, we’re talking about what can produce and provide for your students that goes beyond the readings. This may include videos (externally or internally created), podcasts or lecture recordings, or even the presentation programs that communicate your teaching in the classroom.
Video Resources
There are a plethora of video resources Video resources out there for you to take advantage of including Learner.org, YouTube.com/EDU, TED (and check out their latest feature on flipping the classroom option), and of course, the Library’s FilmOnDemand. For more information about these resources, check out this previous post on Video Resources for Your Classroom.
However, here’s one quick reminder about using videos in and outside the classroom. Always be sure to provide a clear frame for watching the video and a clear sense of what they should be doing with the video—that is, how they should integrate it into the other course material. Students need to be directed to what to focus on in order for videos to work the best. Instructing them to watch the video but not making clear what they are watching for can make follow up discussions lackluster and problematic.
Presenting Unique Content
Rather than use external material, if you want to create your own course material to deliver to students, there are some great resources available for that too.
We’ve talked about Screen-Cast-O-Matic on this blog before and it’s because it’s a great (and easy!) tool that allow faculty to create narrated screencasts (of powerpoints, websites, etc). It takes minutes to learn and then, faculty can focus their time and energy on thinking about how they want to present the material for their audience.
Audacity is a free sound recording program that allows users to make recordings for whatever purpose they might find. In particular, you can make mini-lecture podcasts for your students that recap the day’s lessons or cover other material.
Prezi is a fun presentation tool that provides a 3-Dimensional infinite canvass for you to connect your ideas. The fascinating element about Prezi is that it allows you to visually display relationships in ways that are not as well executed in programs like Powerpoint. Additionally, you can integrate images and videos into this as well as convert them in PDF for your students if you choose to. Check out our YouTube playlist that explores Prezi.
Finally, there’s Google Presentation. It has many of the features of Powerpoint, but again, is free. You can choose to download it as a Powerpoint file if you choose or even PDF. You’re also able to share it easily with students. Where this also wins out against Powerpoint is that if you share it with students, you can utilize the “Comment” feature to spur a discussion around the Powerpoint or encourage students to annotate the powerpoint about what they found useful or care to elaborate on.
For our final post, we’ll be exploring communicate and course extras that you might consider as you move forward.
What other free resources do you use in order to delivery the course content to your students?
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Professional Day Part 3: Wondering and Wisdom
The final entry on 2012 NSCC Profession Day’s workshop on social media and higher education (Check out Part 1, Part 2, and the Workshop Resources) focuses on a few fun insights and questions that came up in the discussion.
1. The Type of Social Media Invokes a Particular Culture of Performance
This was an interesting conclusion that I had not full thought about before, but makes absolutely sense with the online environment. Just as there are places where we can be “ourselves” and places where we must be “professional” and places that blur the lines, social media has its equivalent. Facebook still remains a place that swivels from personal to professional depending on who is using it (and how they choose to use it). We may not like what others are posting, but we know that their “Facebook” but it’s their space to do with as they please. By contrast, LinkedIn.com invokes a different sense of etiquette and behavior. As an arena for recruiting and networking, the interactions and connection people make are more professional. There is less likelihood for chatting in the casual way we find on Facebook. I’ve witnessed this first hand with former students who contact me via LinkedIn (formal, polite, and articulate) in contrast to those who have contacted me in some capacity on Facebook (informal, emoticons, and slang).
2. Move Beyond the Big Ones
Another faculty member emphasized the importance of over-reliance on the big social media sites for person or educational use. Sure, Facebook and Twitter are good and we can reliably expect large amounts of people to have access to them, but some of the smaller social media sites may help to keep from distracting students or introduce them to new tools they might not have known about otherwise.
3. What Would McLuhan Think?
If the “medium is the message,” then how are we to make sense of social media? A faculty member made this insightful point that I believe is important to engage with for anyone using social media. I agree that social media requires substantive study for us to understand the ways in which it mitigates communication and content. But this is also why I think using it in the classroom, filled with students full emerged in much of it already, might help the students as well to understand the medium/message intersection. This makes further sense when we look at Twitter and the implication of a “tweet” and the need to shrink and contort our language into shorthand.
4. 80/20 Rule
Regardless of how you’re going to use social media in that classroom, it seems clear that there is an 80%/20% rule to consider when using it. That is, you need to spend 80% of your time in the planning and developing phases of prior to the course and then, expect to spend 20% time actually executing what you’re looking to do. That is, in order to use social media meaningfully in a course, you need to become familiar with it, determine how you want to use it, and provide resources to help students make sense of the way that you want to use it for class (providing guidelines, expectations, etiquette, etc).
5. Future Workshops on Social Media
Some faculty suggested that it might be more useful in the future to offer three workshops on the topic of social media.
1. The Type of Social Media Invokes a Particular Culture of Performance
This was an interesting conclusion that I had not full thought about before, but makes absolutely sense with the online environment. Just as there are places where we can be “ourselves” and places where we must be “professional” and places that blur the lines, social media has its equivalent. Facebook still remains a place that swivels from personal to professional depending on who is using it (and how they choose to use it). We may not like what others are posting, but we know that their “Facebook” but it’s their space to do with as they please. By contrast, LinkedIn.com invokes a different sense of etiquette and behavior. As an arena for recruiting and networking, the interactions and connection people make are more professional. There is less likelihood for chatting in the casual way we find on Facebook. I’ve witnessed this first hand with former students who contact me via LinkedIn (formal, polite, and articulate) in contrast to those who have contacted me in some capacity on Facebook (informal, emoticons, and slang).
2. Move Beyond the Big Ones
Another faculty member emphasized the importance of over-reliance on the big social media sites for person or educational use. Sure, Facebook and Twitter are good and we can reliably expect large amounts of people to have access to them, but some of the smaller social media sites may help to keep from distracting students or introduce them to new tools they might not have known about otherwise.
3. What Would McLuhan Think?
If the “medium is the message,” then how are we to make sense of social media? A faculty member made this insightful point that I believe is important to engage with for anyone using social media. I agree that social media requires substantive study for us to understand the ways in which it mitigates communication and content. But this is also why I think using it in the classroom, filled with students full emerged in much of it already, might help the students as well to understand the medium/message intersection. This makes further sense when we look at Twitter and the implication of a “tweet” and the need to shrink and contort our language into shorthand.
4. 80/20 Rule
Regardless of how you’re going to use social media in that classroom, it seems clear that there is an 80%/20% rule to consider when using it. That is, you need to spend 80% of your time in the planning and developing phases of prior to the course and then, expect to spend 20% time actually executing what you’re looking to do. That is, in order to use social media meaningfully in a course, you need to become familiar with it, determine how you want to use it, and provide resources to help students make sense of the way that you want to use it for class (providing guidelines, expectations, etiquette, etc).
5. Future Workshops on Social Media
Some faculty suggested that it might be more useful in the future to offer three workshops on the topic of social media.
- Workshop 1: Social Media for the Socially (Media) Isolated. This workshop would be a very simple introduction to several of the big social media sites and their general uses.
- Workshop 2: Social Media Concerns. This workshop would run more like a discussion about the challenges and concerns that faculty have when considering using social media for professional and educational purposes.
- Workshop 3: Using Social Media. This workshop would focus largely on the research and tools out there that have effectively (and ineffectively, I suppose) used social media for educational and professional uses such as this.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Professional Day Part 2: The Importance of Social Media for the Community College
So the last post discussed some of the concerns
for ourselves and our students when contemplating social media. This
post will examine some of the important reasons to consider and engage
in social media in the college level.
Social Media = Virtual Community
Social Media is about devleoping and engaging an online community and that virtual community can transcend into the real world. As North Shore Community College increasingly teaches more students online, we need to foster and engage our students in a similar fashion. After all, the student that leaves in Western, Massachusetts going to NSCC full time via online classes is also part of our community. Just as faculty have a physical presence in physical community, a virtual presence is also needed.
Role Models Needed
Students need role models. This is often true in the phsycial classroom and equally true in the online environment. They need people to look up to who can show them how to be professional and what it means to be responsible in public in an online environment. Faculty can and should serve as that those role models, exhibiting profesionalism and etiquette. There's often criticism and belittling of how students use (or misuse or abuse) social media, but if we don't provide concrete examples for them to emulate, are we helping or perpetuating the problem?
Tangible Social Connections
Because social media is much more clearly quantified (you can clearly delineate how many connections from a particular organization/geographical space that you have as well as easily quantify the amount and types of interactions), students can emerge from their degree with a clearer sense of what kinds of networks their education opened them up to.
Improving Social/Cultural Capital
With those tangible social connections, comes increased social and cultural capital.
First generation and low-income students can lack substantive social or cultural capital compared to middle class and students of college-educated parents. While college is significantly about the education and work one does, it's also about establishing and expanding one's social network and thereby improving the opportunities afforded in the student's life. Maintaing connections through social media is important for students as they move on in their lives. This is because our social connections can often shape our opportunities and this is the case not just with our strong social bonds but our weak social bonds as well.
Crisscrossing Interactions
Engaging in social media also provides later opportunites for interaction and learning on both student and faculty's behalf. Just as we are likely to keep connected with students in the real world at the end of a course, virtual connections also help to bridge the chasm of time and space. This can make it much easier if you wish to call upon former students to guest speak in your class (particularly in fields like nursing or business) or for them to engage you for ideas and information.
Informing Students of Class, NSCC, and the world at large.
Social media also serves as a continued conduit with students with regards to the class, the college, and the world at large. Utilizing social media for education can help students learn how to use social media as a meaningful tool while also keeping them connected to the institution and faculty that have hopefully guided the student to understand the world more.
With regards to these ideas, if you plan to use social media in the classroom in some direct or indirect way, I'd highly encourage you to think broadly ahead of time and develop a clear policy about the nature of how you want to use social media, how you expect students to engage it (with regards to you or the online social space that you construct), and other important considerations that might be helpful for them (and yourself) to better understand while providing clear understanding for how exactly socializing will occurr.
For the final part of this series, I will highlight some of the important points that I took from faculty during these workshops about social media.
Social Media = Virtual Community
Social Media is about devleoping and engaging an online community and that virtual community can transcend into the real world. As North Shore Community College increasingly teaches more students online, we need to foster and engage our students in a similar fashion. After all, the student that leaves in Western, Massachusetts going to NSCC full time via online classes is also part of our community. Just as faculty have a physical presence in physical community, a virtual presence is also needed.
Role Models Needed
Students need role models. This is often true in the phsycial classroom and equally true in the online environment. They need people to look up to who can show them how to be professional and what it means to be responsible in public in an online environment. Faculty can and should serve as that those role models, exhibiting profesionalism and etiquette. There's often criticism and belittling of how students use (or misuse or abuse) social media, but if we don't provide concrete examples for them to emulate, are we helping or perpetuating the problem?
Tangible Social Connections
Because social media is much more clearly quantified (you can clearly delineate how many connections from a particular organization/geographical space that you have as well as easily quantify the amount and types of interactions), students can emerge from their degree with a clearer sense of what kinds of networks their education opened them up to.
Improving Social/Cultural Capital
With those tangible social connections, comes increased social and cultural capital.
First generation and low-income students can lack substantive social or cultural capital compared to middle class and students of college-educated parents. While college is significantly about the education and work one does, it's also about establishing and expanding one's social network and thereby improving the opportunities afforded in the student's life. Maintaing connections through social media is important for students as they move on in their lives. This is because our social connections can often shape our opportunities and this is the case not just with our strong social bonds but our weak social bonds as well.
Crisscrossing Interactions
Engaging in social media also provides later opportunites for interaction and learning on both student and faculty's behalf. Just as we are likely to keep connected with students in the real world at the end of a course, virtual connections also help to bridge the chasm of time and space. This can make it much easier if you wish to call upon former students to guest speak in your class (particularly in fields like nursing or business) or for them to engage you for ideas and information.
Informing Students of Class, NSCC, and the world at large.
Social media also serves as a continued conduit with students with regards to the class, the college, and the world at large. Utilizing social media for education can help students learn how to use social media as a meaningful tool while also keeping them connected to the institution and faculty that have hopefully guided the student to understand the world more.
With regards to these ideas, if you plan to use social media in the classroom in some direct or indirect way, I'd highly encourage you to think broadly ahead of time and develop a clear policy about the nature of how you want to use social media, how you expect students to engage it (with regards to you or the online social space that you construct), and other important considerations that might be helpful for them (and yourself) to better understand while providing clear understanding for how exactly socializing will occurr.
For the final part of this series, I will highlight some of the important points that I took from faculty during these workshops about social media.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Professional Day Part 1: Concerns of Social Media
Tuesday,
April 3, 2012 was North Shore Community College's Professional Day. I ran a
workshop on using Social Media. My goal was provide some ideas and
approaches to using it. However, in order to get there, there were
issues to address that commonly come up when discussing social media. I
wanted to address and negate some of these concerns and inflated
fears. I also wanted to help colleagues understand why its important to
be using social media or how students can benefit from our usage of
it. Finally, I wanted to highlight ways in which it can be used in the
classroom. What follows is a series of posts highlighting some of what I
hoped to communicate and also some of what I heard and learned from my
colleagues.
Concerns and Fears around Social Media
It’s making us stoopiderer
This argument was first brought up by Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic Monthly and followed up by his book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The book is a thoughtful book, but he can't get around the fact that his argument is based upon his self-admission that he can't think as deeply as he used to but disproves this by writing a deeply and critical book about said issue. Furthermore, some of the research that he uses is not as clear cut or relevant and this has been strongly addressed by Brian Chen in his book, Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In. Additionally, Carr's argument is focused on the Internet as a whole and not just social media, of which there are some differences.
It’s distracting.
Without a doubt, our social media has the potential to be distracting, BUT we don't make it less by distracting by avoiding it. Rather we learn to discriminate with social media, just like we do by driving--by doing it and learning what to focus on and what to ignore. Everyday life is extremely distracting, except we've learned how to make it less so, but immersing ourselves it in and realizing what's important and what's not, how to prioritize, and how to make judgments about the streams of information.
It’s leaving people vulnerable.
Around issues of privacy, yes--there are concerns about this. After all, the latest fright running through the media landscape is that employers are asking for passwords to potential employees' Facebook accounts. Yes, avoiding the online world altogether doesn't work for two reasons. 1. You're already on the internet. Particularly those of us working at NSCC, things like our salaries are already out there. Avoiding engaging in the online environment means that all information that is out there about you is put out there by someone else. 2. A lack of an online presence will become increasingly questionable or be an indication of a lack of a skillset that is increasingly relevant to all sorts of work.
It’s not “real.”
There's concern about the substance of social media and claim that it's ephemeral nature leads to no "real" world interaction. With programs like FourSquare, social media is used to project us into the real world. However, Clay Shirky among others would feel that it does have real world influence and in the case of Wael Ghonim, one of the leaders in the Egyptian Revolution, it certainly did constitute something real.
It’s superficial.
What does pressing "like" even mean? I have 400+ "friends" and 200+ "followers" but it doesn't really mean anything. Possibly. But blaming the tool might be missing the point. Social media quantifies and reflects how we move through the real world. If we don't feel "connected" to our 400 "friends"--doesn't that speak to ourselves and the superficiality of our connections? A better way of thinking about this is that social media shows us all the people we are bonded with in some way. Some bonds are strong; others are weak. A social network reminds you of all the people you are connected to, but it's up to you to decide how to engage with them.
It’s an echo-chamber.
Besides issues of filtering that are occurring according to Eli Pariser, there's also self-filtering that is occurring. This is inducing a concern of each person's social media being merely an echo-chamber for them to yell but not listen. Again, this is something we will foster by choosing to not engage and interact.
My points here aren't to say these aren't important concerns, but avoiding social media in our lives or in our classroom doesn't make these challenges go away and we leave our students less prepared for the world they are entering in. They need to see how we interact through social media as role models but also to understand the ways information and disciplines are changing as a result of social media too.
In the next post in this series, we'll focus on The Importance of Social Media for the Community College. The final post will look at what I learned and took from the event.
Concerns and Fears around Social Media
It’s making us stoopiderer
This argument was first brought up by Nicholas Carr in The Atlantic Monthly and followed up by his book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. The book is a thoughtful book, but he can't get around the fact that his argument is based upon his self-admission that he can't think as deeply as he used to but disproves this by writing a deeply and critical book about said issue. Furthermore, some of the research that he uses is not as clear cut or relevant and this has been strongly addressed by Brian Chen in his book, Always On: How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-Anytime-Anywhere Future--and Locked Us In. Additionally, Carr's argument is focused on the Internet as a whole and not just social media, of which there are some differences.
It’s distracting.
Without a doubt, our social media has the potential to be distracting, BUT we don't make it less by distracting by avoiding it. Rather we learn to discriminate with social media, just like we do by driving--by doing it and learning what to focus on and what to ignore. Everyday life is extremely distracting, except we've learned how to make it less so, but immersing ourselves it in and realizing what's important and what's not, how to prioritize, and how to make judgments about the streams of information.
It’s leaving people vulnerable.
Around issues of privacy, yes--there are concerns about this. After all, the latest fright running through the media landscape is that employers are asking for passwords to potential employees' Facebook accounts. Yes, avoiding the online world altogether doesn't work for two reasons. 1. You're already on the internet. Particularly those of us working at NSCC, things like our salaries are already out there. Avoiding engaging in the online environment means that all information that is out there about you is put out there by someone else. 2. A lack of an online presence will become increasingly questionable or be an indication of a lack of a skillset that is increasingly relevant to all sorts of work.
It’s not “real.”
There's concern about the substance of social media and claim that it's ephemeral nature leads to no "real" world interaction. With programs like FourSquare, social media is used to project us into the real world. However, Clay Shirky among others would feel that it does have real world influence and in the case of Wael Ghonim, one of the leaders in the Egyptian Revolution, it certainly did constitute something real.
It’s superficial.
What does pressing "like" even mean? I have 400+ "friends" and 200+ "followers" but it doesn't really mean anything. Possibly. But blaming the tool might be missing the point. Social media quantifies and reflects how we move through the real world. If we don't feel "connected" to our 400 "friends"--doesn't that speak to ourselves and the superficiality of our connections? A better way of thinking about this is that social media shows us all the people we are bonded with in some way. Some bonds are strong; others are weak. A social network reminds you of all the people you are connected to, but it's up to you to decide how to engage with them.
It’s an echo-chamber.
Besides issues of filtering that are occurring according to Eli Pariser, there's also self-filtering that is occurring. This is inducing a concern of each person's social media being merely an echo-chamber for them to yell but not listen. Again, this is something we will foster by choosing to not engage and interact.
My points here aren't to say these aren't important concerns, but avoiding social media in our lives or in our classroom doesn't make these challenges go away and we leave our students less prepared for the world they are entering in. They need to see how we interact through social media as role models but also to understand the ways information and disciplines are changing as a result of social media too.
In the next post in this series, we'll focus on The Importance of Social Media for the Community College. The final post will look at what I learned and took from the event.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Professional Day, April 2012
For
those who did or didn't attend the the presentation on Social Media for
professional and classroom use, we have provided the resources here for
you. A summary of the presentation in blog form will follow, but for
now, enjoy!
Effective Uses of Facebook and Twitter in the Classroom
| Uses/Benefits | Personal | Professional | Classroom Announcements | Classroom Interaction | |
| Facebook Usage | Friending Posting Sharing Tagging Liking PollingTracking/Data Collection Visually-oriented | Keep connected with family, friends, and interests about important and/or frivolous things. | Networking, CFPs, major scholars/professionals in the field, professional opportunities, industry news, and professional organizations. | Reminding students about assignments, last minute changes, recommending links/resources for class or the school, and sharing advice. | Developing discussions outside the classroom, organizing course information, and soliciting feedback. |
| Twitter Usage | Following Tweeting ReTweeting @Mentions #HashtagsLess concerns with anonymity | Same as above, but 140-space posts. | Same as above, but 140-space posts. | Same as above, but 140-space posts. | Same as above, but 140-space posts. Backchannel to class for conversation or notes. Language manipulation skills |
| Example #1 | “Hey Joe—check out this video” | “Anyone going to conference X and wanna split a room?” | “Who has started their paper yet—remember, it’s due tomorrow!” | “The first 5 people to find legitimate internet sources on today’s lesson, will get a bonus point.” | |
| Example #2 | “My cat did the cutest thing.” | “According to ‘reliable news source,’ your industry is about to implode.” | “Class is cancelled today—keep reading for next class.” | “What are the three major things you took from today’s class?” | |
| Example #3 | “Who wants to go to a movie tonite?” | “The National Association of Stuff is hosting a conference in your town.” | “Here’s a link related to yesterday’s discussion.” | “What do we think of this link in lieu of last week’s class discussion on topic X?” | |
| Example #4 | “I’m bored…totally.” | “Anyone know anyone that works at Company X—I’m trying to get a hold of someone for a contract option.” | “Don’t forget to bring the other book to class tomorrow.” | “What challenges are you finding with this assignment, reading, or course?” |
NSCC Resources:
- NSCC Learning, Education, Technology and Support Blog
- North Shore Community College Academic Technology
- NSCC Academic Technology on YouTube
- Video Playlist on Social Networking
- Video Playlist on Twitter
Further Resources
- Opening Facebook: How to Use Facebook in the College Classroom
- 100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom
- Twitter in the Classroom
- Using Twitter in university research, teaching and impact activities
- 5 Ways Twitter Has Changed Education
- Personal Learning Networks for Educators: 10 Tips
Recommends Books on the Topic of Social Media, Digital Technology, and Modern Society
- Anderson, Chris. Free: The Future of a Radical Price. New York: Hyperion, 2009.
- Bauerlein, Mark. The Digital Divide: Arguments for and against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011.
- Botsman, Rachel, and Roo Rogers. What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption. New York: Harper Business, 2010.
- Carr, Nicholas G. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.
- Chatfield, Tom. Fun Inc: Why Gaming Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Pegasus Books, 2010.
- Chen, Brian X. Always on: How the Iphone Unlocked the Anything - Anytime - Anywhere Future-and Locked Us in. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2011.
- Jarvis, Jeff. Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011.
- Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead Books, 2005
- Levine, Robert. Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back. New York: Doubleday, 2011.
- McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Press, 2011.
- Pariser, Eli. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. New York: Penguin Press, 2011
- Rose, Frank. The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2011.
- Rushkoff, Douglas. Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. Berkeley, Calif: Soft Skull Press, 2011.
- Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
- Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2011
Friday, March 30, 2012
Technology Spotlight: Screencast-o-matic
Screencasts or “digital recording of computer screen output”
that often contain audio narration can be powerful teaching tools and
there are many tools available that can be used to create screencasts. A
great tool to quickly create short screencasts is Screen-cast-o-matic.
Screen-cast-o-matic is a free, easy to use, online screen recording program. Features of the free version include:
Tips when creating a screen recording:
- a maximum recording time of 15 minutes per screen recording,
- free web hosting for screen recordings on Screen-cast-o-matic,
- the ability to record from a web camera,
- the ability to publish screen recordings directly to YouTube,
- and the ability to save screen recordings as video files (MP4, AVI or FLV).
Tips when creating a screen recording:
- Write out a script of your screen recording. The script will be helpful when creating the screen recording but can also be used as a transcript or for captioning to help make your screen recording accessible.
- Chunk longer lectures into shorter presentations to allow students to process the concepts.
- Use a headset microphone for best audio quality and set your microphone volume before starting.
- Record in a location with minimal noise distractions. You might also want to put a sign up on your door so you won’t be interrupted.
- Produce lessons that students can watch anywhere at any time
- Allow students to feel more connected to their instructors in an online class
- Share information with students through video and audio
- Demonstrate how to use specific software programs or create tutorials and how-tos
- Perform regular and standardized training
- Narrate PowerPoint mini-lectures
- Explain difficult concepts or illustrate confusing tasks
- Provide explanations for solutions to problems
- Provide feedback to students on assignments
- Walk students through discipline specific Web sites
- Orient students to an online course
- Designing and Teaching an Online or Hybrid Course at NSCC (narrated PowerPoint)
- Accessing Content Orientations (tutorial or how-to on particular task in software program)
- 7 Things You Should Know About Screencasting
- Screencasts as a Pedagogical Tool
- Using Screencasting to Engage and Build Community with Online Learners
- Screencasting for the Online Classroom
- Talking with Students through Screencasting: Experimentations with Video Feedback to Improve Student Learning
• Do you think screencasts have potential as a learning/teaching tool?
• Have you used screencasts in your teaching? If so, in what ways? If not, do you see any uses for screencasts in your teaching and how might you use them?
• Have you used Screen-cast-o-matic or another tool before? What have been your experiences in using those tools?
• Have you used screencasts in your teaching? If so, in what ways? If not, do you see any uses for screencasts in your teaching and how might you use them?
• Have you used Screen-cast-o-matic or another tool before? What have been your experiences in using those tools?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Freeing The Course Part 2: Course Readings
So now we come to the next part in our series on “Freeing the Course.” In the first part, we dealt with free programs and tools,
this time, we're looking at free readings and material for your class.
We all know that textbooks are a significant challenge for any course.
The prices are challenging for students between affording them, getting
them from the bookstore, and glitches or problems with financial aid.
Then, of course, there is the problem of ordering them online on their
own and waiting.
So what about free material online? There’s lots of it. Vast amounts, in fact. So what do we make of that and how do we use it? There are several considerations that you want to think about before venturing onto using online materials that is worth considering.
1. How much will they be reading online? Reading on screen has been found to be more challenging than reading a physical text. Some of this may come to change with improved technology, but it’s something worth keeping in mind. One way to offset this is to make sure the physical text may be available (on reserve in the library, as a “recommended” purchase in the bookstore, or just through the library and inter-library loan.
2. Do you want students to have the readings in class? Many faculty members will want students to have them in hand in class. So this might mean you need to clarify your technology usage policy in your classroom to encourage students to bring laptop or tablet devices. However, many of your students may want to print the material. If that’s the case, please make sure you provide them with sufficient guidelines on how to print efficiently (such as double-sided or printing 2 pages on 1 side of a paper to get 4 pages per piece of paper). Not only does this promote more environmentally friendly results, but students are limited in the amount they can print before the school charges them and you don’t want to use the student’s entire semester budget for just your class.
3. How reliable are the readings to stay where they are? We know the internet can be quirky. That awesome site that’s here today can be gone tomorrow. So in selecting readings, make sure you choose reliable sites or sites that have been around for several years (though that’s no guarantee that they will always be around). You might want to find the source in several places or alternatives to each reading.
4. What do you want the students (or yourself) to do with the readings? As we’ll see below, the online environment allows for something that you cannot with regular texts (at least not as easily) and that is create a collaboratively annotated online text. So maybe all you want your students to do is to read the material. But you can also start to push the students to engage with the material and voice opinions or thoughts on particular passages directly onto the page, using tools like Diigo.
Ok, so what are some of those resources that you may want to consider:
The first handful sources of particular use for the Humanities and Social Sciences (though other disciplines are apt to find great nuggets to include in their courses from these sites): The Internet Archive, The Gutenberg Project, Wikisource, and Librivox. There are large repositories of the public domain which includes books and textual material in the case of Archive, Gutenberg Project, and Wikisource, but also sound in the case of Librivox and images, sounds, videos, text, programs, and well, the entire internet, in the case of The Internet Archive. Some of these sites only offer html-based text resources, but Archive does a decent job of providing formats that are operable in different eReaders.
Librivox offers user-based sound recordings of works that are in the public domain. This can be great for giving students access to audio renderings of readings. However, it could also be a great idea as an assignment for students to create additional reading in the public domain; it might be a great service learning project for a communications, media, or English course.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for a standard textbook, Flatworld Knowledge might be your place to be. From this site, you can select and use an online textbook FOR FREE for your class. As the site explains it, "It’s this easy: search our catalog, request a print review copy or review our book online, complete an online adoption form, give a URL to your students, and download our supplements. Done. It really is that easy." The text is free for students to read online and if they want to order a physical copy, they can for a reasonable price. Faculty can also chose to customize the text if they so choose.
In addition to these Internet-based sources, there are also two great tools that are available through the library. The first is Ebrary, the library’s digital library, giving students access to 1000s of books both popular and academic. Faculty can assign entire books or individual chapters from a range of books. Ebrary also includes some great tools such as a notes section, annotations, and highlight so students can engage more with the text. Overdrive is another great source for access to digital copies of both books (more popular books in this case) and audiobooks. The one drawback with Overdrive is that there are limitations on the amount of students that can virtually check out a book. But it might be useful to direct students if you have them doing research or required to read an outside book on their own.
Finally, for developing content online as opposed to standard pay-for texts, I’d highly recommend Diigo. This is a social bookmarking tool that allows you to not only create and share bookmarks, but if you create a group, you can collaboratively annotate and highlight any page you bookmark (or that students bookmark). Some faculty enjoy using a variety of websites including blogs, newspapers, and other online sources. They can create a Diigo group for their class, organize the links into different “chapters” or “weekly readings.” But what’s great is that the faculty can annotate and highlight passages on the website that students will be able to see or faculty can require students to write commentary on the website. In effect, this creates a “living text” that the faculty member can use each semester, adding or subtracting as it makes sense to do so. For more exploration of Diigo’s uses, check out our playlist on Youtube.
One last note. It’s important that you explain to students the expectations around your course material in terms of how they should be used. Students may not have had material online to read and so giving them some directions and guidelines about how to read (and notate) online as well as resources to overcome problems and alternative places they can find the material is really important. It’s frustrating to the faculty member when the student doesn’t do the reading, but it’s equally frustrating for the student when the reading isn’t accessible.
So what about free material online? There’s lots of it. Vast amounts, in fact. So what do we make of that and how do we use it? There are several considerations that you want to think about before venturing onto using online materials that is worth considering.
1. How much will they be reading online? Reading on screen has been found to be more challenging than reading a physical text. Some of this may come to change with improved technology, but it’s something worth keeping in mind. One way to offset this is to make sure the physical text may be available (on reserve in the library, as a “recommended” purchase in the bookstore, or just through the library and inter-library loan.
2. Do you want students to have the readings in class? Many faculty members will want students to have them in hand in class. So this might mean you need to clarify your technology usage policy in your classroom to encourage students to bring laptop or tablet devices. However, many of your students may want to print the material. If that’s the case, please make sure you provide them with sufficient guidelines on how to print efficiently (such as double-sided or printing 2 pages on 1 side of a paper to get 4 pages per piece of paper). Not only does this promote more environmentally friendly results, but students are limited in the amount they can print before the school charges them and you don’t want to use the student’s entire semester budget for just your class.
3. How reliable are the readings to stay where they are? We know the internet can be quirky. That awesome site that’s here today can be gone tomorrow. So in selecting readings, make sure you choose reliable sites or sites that have been around for several years (though that’s no guarantee that they will always be around). You might want to find the source in several places or alternatives to each reading.
4. What do you want the students (or yourself) to do with the readings? As we’ll see below, the online environment allows for something that you cannot with regular texts (at least not as easily) and that is create a collaboratively annotated online text. So maybe all you want your students to do is to read the material. But you can also start to push the students to engage with the material and voice opinions or thoughts on particular passages directly onto the page, using tools like Diigo.
Ok, so what are some of those resources that you may want to consider:
The first handful sources of particular use for the Humanities and Social Sciences (though other disciplines are apt to find great nuggets to include in their courses from these sites): The Internet Archive, The Gutenberg Project, Wikisource, and Librivox. There are large repositories of the public domain which includes books and textual material in the case of Archive, Gutenberg Project, and Wikisource, but also sound in the case of Librivox and images, sounds, videos, text, programs, and well, the entire internet, in the case of The Internet Archive. Some of these sites only offer html-based text resources, but Archive does a decent job of providing formats that are operable in different eReaders.
Librivox offers user-based sound recordings of works that are in the public domain. This can be great for giving students access to audio renderings of readings. However, it could also be a great idea as an assignment for students to create additional reading in the public domain; it might be a great service learning project for a communications, media, or English course.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for a standard textbook, Flatworld Knowledge might be your place to be. From this site, you can select and use an online textbook FOR FREE for your class. As the site explains it, "It’s this easy: search our catalog, request a print review copy or review our book online, complete an online adoption form, give a URL to your students, and download our supplements. Done. It really is that easy." The text is free for students to read online and if they want to order a physical copy, they can for a reasonable price. Faculty can also chose to customize the text if they so choose.
In addition to these Internet-based sources, there are also two great tools that are available through the library. The first is Ebrary, the library’s digital library, giving students access to 1000s of books both popular and academic. Faculty can assign entire books or individual chapters from a range of books. Ebrary also includes some great tools such as a notes section, annotations, and highlight so students can engage more with the text. Overdrive is another great source for access to digital copies of both books (more popular books in this case) and audiobooks. The one drawback with Overdrive is that there are limitations on the amount of students that can virtually check out a book. But it might be useful to direct students if you have them doing research or required to read an outside book on their own.
Finally, for developing content online as opposed to standard pay-for texts, I’d highly recommend Diigo. This is a social bookmarking tool that allows you to not only create and share bookmarks, but if you create a group, you can collaboratively annotate and highlight any page you bookmark (or that students bookmark). Some faculty enjoy using a variety of websites including blogs, newspapers, and other online sources. They can create a Diigo group for their class, organize the links into different “chapters” or “weekly readings.” But what’s great is that the faculty can annotate and highlight passages on the website that students will be able to see or faculty can require students to write commentary on the website. In effect, this creates a “living text” that the faculty member can use each semester, adding or subtracting as it makes sense to do so. For more exploration of Diigo’s uses, check out our playlist on Youtube.
One last note. It’s important that you explain to students the expectations around your course material in terms of how they should be used. Students may not have had material online to read and so giving them some directions and guidelines about how to read (and notate) online as well as resources to overcome problems and alternative places they can find the material is really important. It’s frustrating to the faculty member when the student doesn’t do the reading, but it’s equally frustrating for the student when the reading isn’t accessible.
- What are barriers for you to keep you from using online materials instead of the standard physical text?
- What kind of online material have you used? What did you like and dislike about it?
- What would be your ideal for online materials? How would it work?
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