Thinking As a Writer: The Literacy Narrative Assignment
Literacy narrative assignment sheet (pdf)
June 04, 2008
May 10, 2008
Stripping out html in Word docs
Here is a great article on stripping the nuisance html code out of a Word doc. Sounds good.
April 18, 2008
Being risk adverse
It's easy to become "risk adverse" since everywhere you look there are risks. The challenge of course is to find the risks that are worth taking. Or, is that just another strategy of the risk adverse? Hmmm. If you want to have students take risks I think you have to model risk taking. Do something that you are afraid to do and then reflect on the risk it took to do that thing.
A simple example is to write something off the top of your head and post it on a blog knowing full well that it might not be fully formed, it might have typos, or it might just sound trite or sentimental. I tell students that they need to be aware of their audience but is that an impediment to writing or at least first draft writing? For most of us we need to merely get out the words and then try to find how it meets the rhetorical situation after.
Low morale is the sign of the risk adverse. They have drawn into themselves and do not want to show a vulnerable side. Howard talked about this sort of person in the VPIT interview yesterday. It struck a cord with me.
A simple example is to write something off the top of your head and post it on a blog knowing full well that it might not be fully formed, it might have typos, or it might just sound trite or sentimental. I tell students that they need to be aware of their audience but is that an impediment to writing or at least first draft writing? For most of us we need to merely get out the words and then try to find how it meets the rhetorical situation after.
Low morale is the sign of the risk adverse. They have drawn into themselves and do not want to show a vulnerable side. Howard talked about this sort of person in the VPIT interview yesterday. It struck a cord with me.
March 14, 2008
empathy
"Empathy and pity are strong and necessary emotions that deepen our sense of connection to others; but they depend on a kind of metaphorical imagination of what others are going through. The facile assumption that we can literary "feel others' pain" can be dangerous to our sense of who we are--and, more alarmingly, who the others are, too." --Daniel Mendelsohn NYT OpEd March 9, '08.
Mendelsohn's response is to the fraud perpetrated by recent pseudo- memoirists--DeWael and Seltzer. It interests me because I teach the memoir and am writing a memoir. Why these writers did not just write fiction I will never know. Does the memoir in the popular imagination connect more to the truth than fiction? Why for heaven's sake. I want my students (and myself) to write memoirs because they allow us to write our histories and present them to a reader who will, if they are written with energy and a dramatic flare, connect to them because we have given them an experience. And the experience does not have to be horrific; it can be something that is merely (ha!) observed with precision and depth.
The idea of employing "a kind of metaphoric imagination" is just what the memoirist has to do when telling his/her story as well as those of others. It starts with discovering the emotional truth of memories that can then become universal--the action of any good metaphor.
Mendelsohn's response is to the fraud perpetrated by recent pseudo- memoirists--DeWael and Seltzer. It interests me because I teach the memoir and am writing a memoir. Why these writers did not just write fiction I will never know. Does the memoir in the popular imagination connect more to the truth than fiction? Why for heaven's sake. I want my students (and myself) to write memoirs because they allow us to write our histories and present them to a reader who will, if they are written with energy and a dramatic flare, connect to them because we have given them an experience. And the experience does not have to be horrific; it can be something that is merely (ha!) observed with precision and depth.
The idea of employing "a kind of metaphoric imagination" is just what the memoirist has to do when telling his/her story as well as those of others. It starts with discovering the emotional truth of memories that can then become universal--the action of any good metaphor.
March 13, 2008
Twitter and FYC students
Saw this interview with David Perry about the academic uses of Twitter. He says for it to work in the classroom it has to be a combination of the "mundane and the insightful." I can see students starting out twittering about what they are doing at a particular moment (i.e., admitting to eating a tub full of ripple ice cream but NOT to drinking a bottle of ripple wine!--here I'm dating myself, of course.) but how do you get them to start connecting to the class? Perry seems to think it happens naturally. I'm not so sure. Students, at least first year students, need to see the purpose for school related activities. They want it to count for something mainly because they are busy and the technology (i.e., facebook) they do every day is really a way to escape. My writing center tutors balked at using twitter outside of the center but were happy to use it as a way of communicating with me when they were on shift.
Perry also says that it gives students a sense of who he is outside the classroom and that helps learning. He says: "[I]t's not about the nodes in the network; it's about the connections you can form between information." I think that this is a fairly underrated benefit of something like twitter. But with every other sort of communication it would have to be constrained by the context (see below), as in: "I'm now twittering about my life outside the classroom"--meaning: I write particular things and not other things so my students can see me as a "real" guy. I don't want to appear cynical here but to be realistic. Connections I think arise within some sort of form, otherwise they have no walls to bounce off of to connect to something else.
Finally, there is this from Perry: "We're always trying to teach students, especially in writing, that context determines meaning. And because Twitter has very refined rules about what you can do--only 140 characters, for example--it's developed its own sort of discursive grammar set; that can serve as an example of how rules can be productive for communication and can limit communication." One way of doing twitter in the classroom might be to have students do it for a particular amount of time (at the beginning of the semester) and then have them write about the experience Provide some sources about twitter and then let them actually do their own self study. Then the twittering could be optional for the rest of the semester.
Perry also says that it gives students a sense of who he is outside the classroom and that helps learning. He says: "[I]t's not about the nodes in the network; it's about the connections you can form between information." I think that this is a fairly underrated benefit of something like twitter. But with every other sort of communication it would have to be constrained by the context (see below), as in: "I'm now twittering about my life outside the classroom"--meaning: I write particular things and not other things so my students can see me as a "real" guy. I don't want to appear cynical here but to be realistic. Connections I think arise within some sort of form, otherwise they have no walls to bounce off of to connect to something else.
Finally, there is this from Perry: "We're always trying to teach students, especially in writing, that context determines meaning. And because Twitter has very refined rules about what you can do--only 140 characters, for example--it's developed its own sort of discursive grammar set; that can serve as an example of how rules can be productive for communication and can limit communication." One way of doing twitter in the classroom might be to have students do it for a particular amount of time (at the beginning of the semester) and then have them write about the experience Provide some sources about twitter and then let them actually do their own self study. Then the twittering could be optional for the rest of the semester.
March 02, 2008
ITC eLearning Conference in St. Petersburg, FL on February 16-19
This is the first of several entries on the workshops and presentations I attended at the ITC Conference
Feb. 16th Saturday afternoon
Note: the first event I attended at the conference was an afternoon workshop on Second Life
Workshop: Second Life
The presenter gave us a link to his Second Life links: Blu Baraka. Some good stuff here.
Notes:
- Look into the Ivory Tower of primitive objects—ready made objects.
- Look into Notecards . . . as a way to drop off assignments in a writing class.
- Check out freebie warehouse—another place to get objects for your in-world space.
- There is the problem of a steep learning curve with Second Life. One suggestion: Have a free class for students who want to learn Second Life. The objective: personalization and community.
Ideas for teaching writing in Second Life:
- Since online students are at a distance in respect to each other, Second Life could provide a place where they can discuss a topic in real time and “see” one another.
- In a writing class students could do research in-world on identity and other cultural aspects of Second Life. Then they could come back to the relative safety of the Second Life classroom (see below) to discuss what they found and to drop off papers for their classmates to read and review and for the teacher to grade.
A small teaching space (a room) can be purchased in Second Life for $9 with additional maintenance fee. I'm going to look into it.
We were told about a listserv for Second Life. Here is an announcement of an interesting up coming event from that second life listserv: .
April 22 - 6PM - Newbie Q&A - Teaching Tips - OLN Island
Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/OLN%20Island/126/126/27
So you want to teach a class using Second Life? Get advice from seasoned veterans about bringing students in-world for the first time!
Avoid common pitfalls and misconceptions
Learn tips and tricks to make the course session successful
How to bring existing course materials (websites, PPTs, videos) in-world
How to track student activity in your virtual classroom
Discuss appropriate language for your syllabus regarding expectations and behavior
February 29, 2008
ITC eLearning Conference in St. Petersburg, FL on February 16-19
This is an outline of keynote address and the sessions I attended on the second day of the conference
Keynote:
Learning From Our Worst Practices
Brief notes that I need to expand upon:
He started by citing the book: Innovations Dilemma —Clayton Christiansen
Disruptive innovations e.g., Café Scribe allow us to learn by failing first
Action precedes interaction
Start, learn, and try again / learning then planning / we must fail faster
Open source coming in under the higher ed business model
Sessions:
Accessible Multimedia in an Online Class--Sun 9:45
This session dealt with an easy and inexpensive way of putting captions on instructional videos. The presenter used Windows Media Encoder, notepad, and Magpie as solutions. There was a cd giveaway with all the programs and instructions. After you get a transcript of your video then captioning it is a relatively easy process. There was mention about using dictating software like Dragon Naturally Speaking or Vista Voice to produce the transcript.
Also, the presenter repeatedly said that he could not get Flash to work with the programs that were created in this process. I wonder whether Jing or Camtasia could do the job because they take video screen captures. If they could take a screen capture with voice then the captioning would be included. You could then make a flash file out of the result and embed it into your website, blog, etc.
Technology, Trends and Collaborative Tools for the Online Classroom--Sun 11:15
The presenters began with the Elluminate Live software and Learning Objects which are not free. They could have left them for last. The interesting stuff was the free programs they talked about which I list the most interesting below.
The free software they talked about were . . .
Kaltura: a storytelling, blog video, collaborative app that is based in Flickr.
WizIQ: collaboration tool for those working on projects together.
Elluminate vRoom: free for 3 people--good for office hours. Does not record the session but you could use Camtasia to do it.
Google Talk and MeBeam: IM software that combines audio and video.
Skype: VOIP--make free calls to anywhere.
Wink: screen capture.
RUReady: for math.
Feed library: a place where you can store all your websites and comment on them.
Bring Advanced Gaming Technology to E-Learning Environments--Sun 2:00
Way way out there. Sophisticated gaming environment that showed training sessions established for the Navy in a simulated environment. Spectacular and expensive. Not ready for prime time. (got her card)
Teaching Writing with Web 2.0 Apps--3:30
My session
(see link above)
February 28, 2008
ITC eLearning Conference in St. Petersburg, FL on February 16-19
This is an outline of the sessions I attended on the third day of the conference
Feb. 18th Monday
Keynote:
Seeking the Gold Standard
Brief notes that I need to expand upon:
Software to grade discussions
Resources impact retention
Kids are alright—book about the game culture kid
Demographics:
Veterans & Traditionalists 63-84 had one job - influenced by radio
Baby Boomers 46-62 live to work - TV
Gen X 26-45 jobs are portable - computers
Nexters 6-25 many jobs - media and culture, 9/11, multicultural
Twitter is the rage: “it is what it is”
Teach me to think!
Watch a video where kids where holding up flash cards—not digital
We did the “clicker” and the percentage attending the conference: 29% faculty and 71% admins
V(irtual) L(learning) E(nvironments)—Scott Wilson's site.
Different learning levels: Macro (society), Meso (school), Micro (classroom)
Students have to believe in learning
Interesting sites:
Gabbly: put a chatroom anyone on your site
bubbl.us: create colorful mindmaps online
courses on facebook: add course schedules, assignments, etc to a facebook client
videojug: video app
connexions: a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc.
Dyknow: foster student/teacher interaction
cloud computing: wikipedia def.
go web2.0: complete web 2.0 directory
Digital study hall: content repository mirror
Sessions:
Tastes Del.icio.us! Instructional Uses of Social Bookmarking—Mon. 9:30
Britt Watwood, Center for Teaching Excellence, Virginia Commonwealth University
Del.icio.us tag cloud becomes a part of someone's resume and goes after the email address on a business card or email signature.
Check out Commoncraft screen shots: del.icio.us
tags: tags are like keywords; a website can have multiple tags; you can search del.icio.us using tags.
Minieyes: IBM free program--in this program you see the repeated words but not necessarily how they connect with each other; the related words are not necessarily grouped—there are no particular way you can group that .
What does a word cloud mean? He shows us all the key words in the conference program as a tag cloud, thus you get a sense of the conference themes.
He mixes personal and professional
When you are in del.icio.us you pick the words—it takes a little time to find out which ways of saying something is tagged the most.
Saving sites: you can save them and tag them and send them to colleagues
You can upload your existing bookmarks into del.icio.us—yes, even Google? Sites will suggest tags. Then you make notes to describe the site for the viewer. You can see the history of the site and bring up their del.icio.us acct and become fans of those people and they can add your acct to their network.
What does it mean to be in a network: he sets up a feed to Google reader; you need to know what their network in order to put them into your network. Look at two antennas.com to see ways you can see your network.
Interchanging of information is the social side of del.icio.us.
Use with students: he has students send him a screen shot of their acct; adds a tag for the class. There is one grade associated with del.icio.us. It is their no.1 search engine—it will search for specific items in the tag cloud. Sites have to pass some criteria. You can rss feed it and review the sites you get everyday.
My course: Have students do this at the beginning of a FYC course and show them how they will be able to find information on their topics re: research. You can still tag proprietary websites on campus, use the comment part to describe the site for in and off campus use. Use the more social side of it, push it.
The network process: To get your del.icio.us acct on someone else's network: go to it and put them in your network, they see you are a fan, and then they can put you into their network.
Can I start to give them my del.icio.us acct in my online class right now?
Student Student-Centered learning Strategies using Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation—Mon. 11:30
Dr. Jacqueline Carroll, Truckee Meadows Community College
Class rooms are often the teachers mod of practice. Is it mine? Probably not!
One of these people who talk soooooo fast. Egads.
Kirkpatrick's Levels:
Smiley survey
Learning
Behavior--transfer
Outcomes
--these are the four levels.
Heutagogic learning—self generated learning—self directed model
You will listen because it is one of your peers
I still need to provide more sign posts whereever
Peer interaction in groups is hard to do.
Taught a package FYC course
set a positive tone: these are tips etc , find out which personality or learning styles you are
foster peer interaction
critical thinking—use the db to content knowledge.
use the online ex in my writing classes.
in the online environment
students get two for one—mastery of content and practice in online learning
the group essay got the same complaints as the f2f class—I am doing all the work and I don't have time.
There is an impact on structure and content if you make the course more interactive or students centered and students are ready to appreciate this. Many want a straight ahead plan that can be seen from the beginning as this and that.
Androgogy—learning to learn on you own
There was a low response rate from those who had the enhancements. Mistakes are highlighted in the online classroom.
What was the best enhancement that you made: “I'm glad you asked that question” It was the learning styles inventory.
She sent them to do the inventory
Had them share it with other students
Then had them email a student with the same learning style and tell them what they did to learn better.
She said to email her for a list of the learning inventories that she used
Secrets for Working with Online Groups—Mon. 2:30
Group presenting was from the City Colleges of Chicago
Give students a series of experiences to learn
They did a case study of a Social Science classroom
You have to convince students that what they are doing is the right thing
Criteria for setting up groups
Create a proposal—that the instructor could say yay or nay.
Complete a group research project—the roles are defined, they bring research and put it together, create the paper, edit it, and so forth.
You can't assume that students know how to work in groups.
Let the students redesign the groups to how they want them to be.
Healthy Groups:
Energizer
Information seeker
Coodinator
Secretary
Harmonizer
Opinion seeker
Evaluator-critic
Effective group strategies
-- ask students when they are available so that you can create groups
--make a combination of self-critique, peer feedback and instructor critique.
Building blocks in Bb for free?
Process becomes important but is difficult to grade? Start a report system.
Example of a short group ex.: Do a group project in evaluating websites. This is short 15 min exercise. Then debrief the groups and discuss the ways they worked with each other. Use a series of wrap up questions.
Give students a process grade which starts out with two non-graded evaluations and then put in a real grade assessment at the end. You will do group work in the workplace so this is a valuable skill for you to learn.
Engaging Online Learners with Pop Culture Personal Web Sites—Mon. 4:00
The only thing I learned from this almost worthless session is that students tend to like your class if you can make yourself as human as possible. This presenter took them to her MySpace site. NOT something I would try. But the idea of humanizing your teaching is a good one.
February 27, 2008
ITC eLearning Conference in St. Petersburg, FL on February 16-19
This is an outline of the sessions I attended on the fourth day of the conference
Feb. 19th Tuesday morning
Sessions:
Building Communities of Discourse Online
Kevin Morgan
Discussion
The strength of online teaching is discussion.
He has a laissez-faire attitude—Tao: He claims to channel the natural desire students have to discuss.
Discovery learning:
send students out to do Internet searches and then have them post them online to the discussion
Some students need more structure, focused questions
He gives students feedback mid point in the course to see what they are doing.
He is not active at all in the discussions except in the beginning of the course. Stays out of discussion outside of giving initial feedback. He says that students should not be depended on him as the Word.
Gives corrected posts in the 1-2 weeks
He goes into discussions everyday to skim responses and grade.
After the first few weeks he grades the discussion on how many words are in the posts.
Discussion occurs so naturally that students do it readily—discussion is 20% of the grade.
To get the threaded discussions going they have to be keyed to their papers.
WebCt has a feature that marks articles read? Wonder if the new Bb has this feature?
Students are given focused questions or they can post individual discovery.
What happens in Bb if you give them more points for a particular discussion?
Give them a word range for the reply too. He gives 300 for the first post and 50 for the reply. You get more points if you post at the beginning of the week.
The last thing he said as we were leaving was to ask if we knew of any more classes he could teach--to just let him know. He already teaches 7-8 a semester. What does this say about his methods? He obviously does not read the thousands of discussion posts he gets every day. He grades them by quantity and currency. But he has a point: dealing with discussions can be done more rapidly and more effectively. He has most of his class lectures on streaming video with a transcript. He has set up his courses so that they are self sustaining.
Final Keynote session—lunch
Changing Learning: Shifting Learners, Content, Methods and Outcomes
The final session was by some big wig in elearning who sat in his office in Manhattan and talk to us over streaming video. He was going to do three more meetings that day. Good for him. Still, people like him have good ideas.
Finger tip learning—knowledge at your finger tips.
Students and others are less techy these days: they know little about the machine itself, but they are screen knowledgeable.
User content—are we ready? No but soon.
Make content discoverable and have those who use it rate the content.
6 month cycle for innovation; email took 14 years to come to harvest!
We are going through an adaptation time.
Design as a competency: MFAs to MBAs
Higher Ed is in love with real estate . . .
But students want to know where is the the best semester for . . . whatever. They won't be spending all 8 semesters at your college.
Students have to stop graduating . . . get the certificate but continue learning. He told a story of interviewing his surgeon not for what college he graduated from but what continuing med training he has had. Retention has to be redefined. We have to produce learning at the point of need.
Faculty need a sandbox—used as a verb: they need to be sandboxed. They need to have places where they can continually find time to innovate. Because it is the methodology (pedagogy) and not the technology.
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