Finding the right balance

Image from http://kingsenglish.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tightrope-walker.jpg

This is my comment from http://bit.ly/vZEQF0 about finding the right balance through blended learning.  Parts of it may, therefore, seem a little out of context.

Trying to find the right balance is often a difficult thing to do, especially when there are so many good things you can do. My general rule of thumb is that when you add something to your class, something needs to go. However, there is a point when this isn’t really possible any longer. When it gets to this point, I tend to start examining the way the course and instruction are designed. Is the content being disseminated in the most efficient way possible?

This is where I think blended learning can really be helpful. Wendy I know you are already doing some work with Edmodo so this may not be anything new to you, but for the rest of the group it might be helpful.

What I’d do would be to look at everything that I want to include in my course. Put it all out on the table if you will. Then start thinking about what it is that you could do online. Are there components that can be facilitated online, such as discussions, readings, etc. that will reduce the load of your face to face lessons? If so, then start by organizing those components into an online “pile” if you will.

Next, I’d start looking at some of the things that you’ve done in the past that have traditionally taken place during class. Are there other things like lectures and group work that you typically give your students time in class to do that can be facilitated online? Some of you may be thinking, crazy Dan, doing group work online! As crazy as it sounds, it’s actually not that hard and can actually give your students more flexibility. In my master’s program (75% online) we did a considerable amount of group work using tools like Google Docs, WebCT (BB9), Skype, and Adobe Connect. And when it comes to lectures, there are a number of tools available that can help make the transition to online. While I don’t like lectures, sometimes you just have to lecture, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it in class. So as you survey the components of your course for those type of tasks, put them in the online pile as well.

Remember, you don’t have to put everything online, but ranking components by importance will help you decide if you can do it online or in class. Once you have gone through everything in your course, you should see all the pieces of your course that you want to do in class. These should be the crucial components of your course: major projects, central methods, etc. You should also see a considerable amount of your course that will be taught online. These are going to be things like discussions, lectures, small group activities (not major projects), videos, etc. These are still important pieces of your course, and by putting them online in no way are you lessening their value. Rather, you are just being more efficient with how you spend your time in your course.

As you go through this process, you’ll want to talk with an instructional designer who is familiar with online learning, such as myself. The main contact on campus would be Jason Vetter in ITS-ET. Contacting one of us when you go through this process will help as we will likely provide a different perspective. Remember, my goal here is not to have you simply post your syllabus and readings online. I’m talking about putting major components of your course online to complement your face to face sessions with your students. What I’m advocating for is much more difficult to do at the beginning, but has a much greater payout in the end in terms of the type of learning your students experience and the time savings you can experience in class that allows you to do other tasks with your students.

My experiences with blended learning

Note: This blog post is being used as part of the UNI Teacher Quality Partnership Course Redesign Summit that will take place from June 1-7, therefore, this post may seem a bit out of context for those not participating in the summit.  However, feel free to leave comments and interact as you see fit.

I’ve had a few experiences with blended learning as a student, some good and some bad.  My first experiences were during my undergraduate course about distance education.  This course was taught in an entirely blended format.  There were face-to-face meetings on campus and there were also a number of interactions using a learning management system.  Like many things, the first time you try something is rarely the best experience and mine was no different.  Having never taken a course that met at a distance, I was unprepared for the online experience of the course, in particular, the online discussions.  I’m typically a more reserved person when it comes to discussions in front of my peers and this transferred to the online environment.  When the time came for discussions it was difficult for me to engage with others in the course.  I’d have something I would want to share so I would post it in my forum, but I rarely received feedback from anyone else in the course.  Essentially I thought what I was posting was wrong and no one was telling me otherwise so I went on that assumption.  I felt isolated.  As time went on I continued to feel more and more isolated and in the end my performance in the course suffered.  The problem with this first experience was that I didn’t feel like I was noticed by others in the course.  This is what is called social presence, which has to be facilitated and cultivated by course instructors.  If instructors fail to do this, students tend to fall into the same situation that I found myself in during my first blended course.

However, my second experience was much different from my first.  I enrolled in a distance masters program where all the courses were taught primarily at a distance.  In each of the courses, we only met physically about once or twice a semester and, for the most part, the people I began my courses with were the same throughout the entire experience.  This helped each student develop relationships that will last a lifetime.  There were many typical class activities, such as readings, lectures, discussions, and collaborative group work, that were done at a distance with people from all over the US.  The key for the experience was being able to work asynchronously, but still on a schedule to ensure we progressed through the course together.  This way we could learn when it was most convenient for us.  Also making this a positive experience were the instructors who were flexible and responsive to the needs of the students.  If something needed to be changed, they worked with the entire class and modified the course accordingly.

Reflecting back on the experience, there were a number of changes from my first blended course to my last.  The biggest factor has probably been time.  About 7 years has elapsed since my first experience and during that time a number of advances, both intelectual and technological, have been made with blended and online learning that have made them easier to design and teach.  This isn’t because blended and online learning is an easier format to teach through, but instead, we are better able to identify and change problem areas both in the design process and once the course is underway, which in the end makes the entire process easier.  While we will share and discuss many of the resources and strategies you can use to design effective blended learning environments, I underlined a few words above to have you start thinking about how you and your students interact in your courses.  Even though there are a number of contextual differences between my experience and the ones you create for your students, these are still common themes that will appear in nearly all blended learning environments, so think about these themes in your context and what it means for your students.

M.Ed. Portfolio Blog Series: Technology Applications

This coming Saturday I will be defending my master’s portfolio and I wanted to share some of my hard work with others who won’t attend my defense.  We often spend so much time creating artifacts of our learning, whether it be a document, video, song, web page, etc., to only have it viewed by a relatively small number of people.  I wanted to do something different and share my work with as many people as possible, because I’ve worked hard over the last three years and have grown tremendously as an educator during that time.  So, every day this week I will post about my experiences and share my reflections, with the hope that some conversation can be created about what I’ve done over the last three years and keep our learning going well past my defense.  Today I’m going to talk about the Technology Applications performance indicator, which is a fancy way to say show us how creative you can be with technology you can be in the classroom.

The biggest change that has happened as a result of this program has been the firm development of my teaching philosophy.  Three years ago when I started I had a pretty good idea of who I was and what I thought good teaching was.  Well three years later the changes are truly apparent.  I believe students need the opportunity to learn in a hands-on approach where the teacher has a very reduced role in the classroom.  So for this performance indicator, I used my first PBL project I ever created.

How can I make my community better?

This project was about how students could improve their local community.  Students have the option to do whatever topic their group decided upon as long as it addressed the needs of a certain population within the local community.  This project was designed for a fifth grade technology course, but it is important to have multiple content areas in any lesson in a technology course because that gives the technology additional meaning by putting it in context of a real world application.  This project was no different and addressed both social studies curriculum and literacy curriculum.  If you are interested in the process of how I created the project, check it out here.  The rest of this post will focus on the technology used and the logic behind my decisions.

This project has a number of different technologies used, beginning with blogs.  Each group in this project was to create a blog that they would use to reflect on their process as they went through the project.  There are many components to this project and managing time is often a difficult task so allowing them the opportunity experience reflection was important for me as I created this project.  Students posted every week about their progress, what still needed to be completed and what their next steps were.  Not an overly fancy or new concept, but still a useful way to get students thinking about what they were doing.

Next students became researchers and used the Internet and Google Docs to find and organize their information.  The goal here was to have students construct their own knowledge about how they could improve their community.  There wasn’t a simple solution for each of the students so allowing them to use their own ideas and see if it is a plausible solution was an important characteristic of this process.  Bransford refers to this as a knowledge centered environment, because this is where the students are making sense of information and transferring it to a new situation.

The next step was to share their information with others in the community.  This was done in two different ways.  The first was a somewhat traditional activity, but with a twist.  Students wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper that explained their position and how they thought they could improve the community.  The hope was that students would have their letters published in the newspaper and would receive real feedback from community members, making the task more authentic.  However, I wanted to make sure the students received the proper feedback from the community they deserved so I ended the project with a culminating activity that involved both the students and the community.  It was during this final part of the project where students presented their solutions in a different way.  For this part of the project, students created a short digital story that explained both the problem or issue they were seeking to solve, as well as their solution.  These digital stories were then shared with local city council members at an event devoted to the students and their work, where students could receive real feedback from the people who make change happen in the community.

Also part of the project was a Web site created to help students manage their time.  As I said at the beginning of this post, it was important that the teacher not be at the center of the project and the students had the opportunity to learn collaboratively.  This is where the Web site came in.  On the Web site there are a series of modules in the Homework Assignments section that guide students through major parts of the project.  In these modules are videos and links to resources that help students learn more about the technology they are using for each assignment.  The Web site isn’t anything more than a simple Web site.  If the students had been older, I maybe would have used Facebook, but I didn’t want the focus of the project to be on the vehicle used for learning.  I just wanted something that would easily facilitate the project.

To check out the project and my reflection, go here.

Online education: Is it as good as face-to-face education…it can

Image from: https://www.msu.edu/user/egidio/COM001ML.JPG

 

I came across these two questions when I was browsing through my RSS reader this morning, and it made me think about how we can wield distance education to reach the ever expanding clientele schools are educating.  Here are the questions:

• Is it possible to learn as much when your professor is a mass of pixels whom you never meet?
• How much of a student’s education and growth — academic and personal — depends on face-to-face contact with instructors and fellow students?
• For the entire article go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/us/05college.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

What I like about this article is that it shows some of the problems associated with online education as it is widely done at all levels.  I think of the courses that don’t allow for student voice, feedback, interaction with other students/instructors, etc.  I also think of some of the courses that were offered online from a local community college from my K-12 days as a technology coordinator.  The courses were online courses taught without an instructor, where course materials are available online and students complete assignments based solely on readings and online exercises that rarely require any form of higher order thinking.  When online education is conducted in this manner, I too find the prospects of a face-to-face education much more appealing than the online alternative.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way.  With the range of available online technologies today, there are very few technological reasons to not have a meaningful online educational experience.  The problem lies with poor instructional design for online learning environments.  We cannot simply post instructional materials or as the article mentioned, provide no way for feedback or interaction.  The principles of effective instruction are still applicable in online environments just as they are in face-to-face environments.  For me it all starts creating an environment that promotes interaction and social presence.

Interaction is key for any classroom.  This may seem difficult for online courses, but it doesn’t have to be if the course is designed in a way that promotes interaction in both synchronous and asynchronous methods.  In synchronous online environments, this can be done through the use of video conference software, web cams, microphones, chat rooms, and back channels.  With some simple moderation all of these can be integrated into most online synchronous courses.  In asynchronous online environments, the same level of interaction can be attained through discussion boards, social networks, email, weekly video updates from instructors, or even texting between participants.  While interaction is delayed, it doesn’t mean they are or need to be of any lesser quality.  All of these means of communication also provide the necessary social presence that is necessary for students to perform well in any learning environment.

Social presence is the level at which a participant in a course feels they are received by others in the course.  This can be simply done in a face-to-face course by going to class and interacting with other students and the instructor.  However, distance education makes this a little more difficult since participants don’t physically go to class.  This doesn’t mean that social presence isn’t necessary or possible in online environments.  It just means that instructors have to work a little harder to make it possible for social presence to be established.  There are many ways to go about this, but what I have found to be the best way, from my experiences in an online graduate program through Iowa State University, is to provide a way for students to communicate with each other.  Provide them with a space that is meant just for them.  Let them share stuff that’s going on in their lives, even though it won’t relate to what’s being discussed in class.  Life happens so embrace it and use it to make the connections stronger within the course.  These interactions are necessary for students to become comfortable with each other and lead to more enriched discussions.

Another way to promote social presence is to have a blended learning environment where students actually meet face-to-face at different times in the semester.  This can be done at the beginning of the course, a couple times throughout, or at the end of the semester.  Being able to see and hear what someone else sounds like is a great way to establish social presence in an online course.

When it comes down to it, education is all about the interactions and connections being made by students and their instructors.  If we fail to create a learning environment that promotes these characteristics, then we will not be able to succeed in online learning environments, or at least not at the same level as their face-to-face counterparts.

ePortfolio follow-up

I thought I would post a follow-up to my last post about eportfolios, which focused more on what I thought about ePortfolios as a medium for showing what we know and how I think they can best be done.  In the world we live in today, we need to consider the resources we draw upon to teach our students.  With very little effort, and maybe just a bit of thought, most teachers can find a media rich resource to use in class.  But how do we document the effective use of such rich resources if we are completing paper based portfolios?

The easiest way is to ditch the paper and go with an electronic portfolio or ePortfolio.  ePortfolios can take many forms, from non-linear PowerPoints to simple Web pages to full fledge Web 2.0 wikis, blogs, or even social networks.  The main thing to keep in mind is that the person creating the ePortfolio chooses the platform that works best for them, not their administrator or next door teacher.  Finding the right platform can be a little overwhelming, but here are some things to keep in mind:

• Pick a platform that represents your work the best.
• Pick a platform that doesn’t require a significant time commitment to learn the basics of “how” to use the software.  Some time investment will be required, but it shouldn’t be so much that you don’t have time for anything else.
• Think about the type of media you will be using.  If you have video, but no way to embed said video you might want to find a different platform.
• If you don’t know what platform will work for you, ask for help.  Talk to your administrator, the teachers in your hallway, or even ask for help on Twitter or Facebook.  Many people have been where you are and can help show you the way out.

What I like about ePortfolios, and really paper portfolios, is how easy it is to reflect on the “artifact.”  In most Web 2.0 platforms we have today, there are comment features for nearly everything associated with the software being used.  Whether it be a blog, wiki, podcast, etc., there is almost always some way to make a comment.  This easy access allows us to not only reflect on what we are doing and teaching, but it also allows others to comment on our work and provide feedback.  The power is in the feedback, not the process.  We are often blinded when we look at our own work, so it helps when someone we trust or even someone we haven’t built a trust with, takes a look at our work.

While this post focused more on teachers and ePortfolios, I think they are a great idea for students as well.  If I were teaching a class, I would have all students create an ePortfolio where they could submit their assignments for the course.  I would also have them share the URLs for the ePortfolios with other students in the class, and even other students, teachers, or experts in the state, nation, and world.  Give students the means and platform to speak from and to receive feedback from the rest of the world.  While you may be a very accomplished and educated teacher, receiving feedback from others may make more of an impact on your students’ education than you ever can.  And that’s okay.

Here are some platform ideas for creating ePortfolios.  Note: this is not a how-to perse or an exhaustive list, but rather a list of possibilities.

• Blog
• Wiki
• Web Page
• Social Networking site: Ning, Facebook Page
• Podcasts
• PowerPoint
• Moodle
• BlackBoard

Voice Thread

Voice thread is an online collaborative application that allows multiple people to record voice, video from a webcam, and enter text that is then combined to create one single track about a certain topic.  I have used this a few times through my Iowa State master’s classes to share information about our projects we are working on, share our ideas about a topic we were studying, and also as an ice breaker activity where we told everyone where we were from and where we would live if we had no other obligations.

As education begins to focus more on the skills students will need over the next century, Voice Thread is a nice tool to help your students begin to collaborate with each other and begin developing some of their 21st century skills and literacy.  There are many different activities you can do with Voice Thread, from brainstorming ideas for a project, to reviewing for a test, to creating a digital story.  Here are some examples of a few Voice Threads that have been posted to their site:

• http://voicethread.com/#q+science.b68079.i350759
• http://voicethread.com/#q+math.b26603.i147344
• http://voicethread.com/#q+social+studies.b180785.i962947
• http://voicethread.com/#q+language+arts.b350561.i1906986

 

A Google Jocky? Please do explain…

I came across this from Dear Librarian, an edublog.  To view this blog in it’s entirety, click here.  Interesting…

“A “google jockey” is the person who finds information–usually from the web–to help support a lesson, lecture, or event. Say a fact is needed to help support understanding–the google jockey hops on to the Internet and finds a fact.”

While I have yet to try this, not teaching any classes at the moment, I can see great potential using this in your classes.  As we think about how we can create more student centered classrooms having students search the Internet for resources related to the content could be very powerful.  They could see there are other resources than the teacher or the textbook, and what’s more likely to happen is that they will find richer ressources they can then share with the rest of the class.  This would also be a great way to get them thinking about online research and the reliability of resources, as well as how to cite resources when they share them.

If you have a chance, please check out the post by Dear Librarian.

New Online Resource: Glog

I was doing a bit of catch up on some of the blogs that I follow and came across Glog.  Glog is like a blog only it uses pictures, video, and sound to deliver the message, rather than full paragraph text.  I was quite surprised as I started to use Glog for the first time at how simple the interface is.  Navigating and using the Glog interface seemed very intuitive and straightforward.  I was able to upload or link to any audio, video, or pictures.

I can see how useful a site like this would be for teachers who are looking for ways to break up the types of projects or possibly looking for ways to integrate more 21st century skills into their classroom.  I made a Glog to show you how it works and you can view it here: http://dmourlam.glogster.com/MLK/.  I am sure you or your kids can do a much better job as I did mine with haste.  There is also a dashboard with a fully functional profile and communication mechanism if that would be of interest to you.  You are also able to search for a glog on a certain topic.  Here are some you can use if you are doing anything with MLK Day:

• http://rall.glogster.com/Dr-Martin-Luther-King-Jr/
• http://stilldreaming.glogster.com/I-have-a-dream/
• http://junior90.glogster.com/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-/

You can sign up for free at: http://www.glogster.com/

 

100 Ways to use Facebook in the Classroom

Since the beginning of the school year I have been looking for ways to help teachers incorporate Facebook into their classrooms and I came across this Web site.  This site has some great ideas for projects and other activities you can try with your students.  The best part of Facebook is that your students already know how to use it so there will be very little training once you begin using it.  Where some will find difficulty will be the actual creation of the activity using Facebook.  This is where I can help you out.  If you any help or want to run something by me, please let me know.

Here are the 100 ways straight from OnlineCollege.org.  If you wish to see the Web page in its original format, please click on the link above.  Please note that not all the activities listed below will be appropriate for every class.

100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom

October 20th, 2009

Facebook isn’t just a great way for you to find old friends or learn about what’s happening this weekend, it is also an incredible learning tool. Teachers can utilize Facebook for class projects, for enhancing communication, and for engaging students in a manner that might not be entirely possible in traditional classroom settings. Read on to learn how you can be using Facebook in your classroom, no matter if you are a professor, student, working online, or showing up in person for class.

Class Projects

The following ideas are just a starting point for class projects that can be used with Facebook in the classroom.

1. Follow news feeds. Have students follow news feeds relevant to the course material in order to keep current information flowing through the class.
2. Share book reviews. Students can post their book reviews for the instructor to grade and other students to read. If it’s a peer-reviewed project, then students can more easily access each other’s papers online.
3. Knighthood. Playing this game promotes strong reading skills. This teacher explains how he used it with his ESL class.
4. Poll your class. Use polls as an interactive teaching tool in class or just to help facilitate getting to know one another with the Poll app for Facebook.
5. Practice a foreign language. Students learning a foreign language can connect with native speakers through groups or fan opportunities such as this one.
6. Create your own news source. A great way for journalism students to practice their craft, use the Facebook status update feed as a breaking news source for sports results, academic competition results, and other campus news.
7. Follow news stories. Keep up with news through Facebook on groups like World News Webcast that provides video clips of world news.
8. Keep up with politicians. Political science students can become fans of politicians in order to learn about their platforms and hear what they have to say first hand.
9. Create apps for Facebook. A class at Stanford started doing this in 2007 and still has a Facebook group profiling their work. A class at Berkeley also did the same.
10. Participate in a challenge. Look for challenges like the one held by Microsoft and Direct Marketing Educational Foundation that challenges undergrads and grad students to create usable products for Microsoft in return for experience and, in some cases, certification.
11. Bring literature to life. Create a Facebook representation of a work of literature like this class did.

Facilitate Communication

An excellent way to ensure students are more engaged in the learning experience is by strengthening the communication between students and student-to-teacher. These are just a few ideas to do just that.

1. Create groups. You can create groups for entire classes or for study groups with smaller subsets of students that allow for easy sharing of information and communication, without students even having to friend each other.
2. Schedule events. From beginning of semester mixers to after-finals celebrations, easily schedule events for the entire class using Facebook.
3. Send messages. From unexpected absences to rescheduling exams, it’s easy to send messages through Facebook.
4. Share multimedia. With the ability to post videos, photos, and more, you can share multimedia content easily with the entire class.
5. Post class notes. Post notes after each class period for students to have access for review or in case they were absent.
6. Provide direct communication with instructors. Instructors and students can contact each other through Facebook, providing an opportunity for better sharing of information and promoting better working relationships.
7. Allows shy students a way to communicate. Shy students who may not want to approach their teacher after class or during office hours can use Facebook to communicate.
8. Facilitate classmate connections. When students get to know each other more intimately, they become more involved in the learning experience. This is helpful in both large classes that wouldn’t normally promote such intimacy and in smaller settings that regularly depend on that connection.
9. Make announcements. Instructors can send out reminders about upcoming tests, upcoming due dates, or any classroom news.
10. Brainstorm. Students can have the ability to add their thoughts to the class any time they occur allows for more opportunities for brainstorming off each other.
11. Share interesting websites. Students and instructors alike can post interesting websites that add relevancy to the class.
12. Post homework. Posting homework through Facebook not only provides easy access for students, it also puts in writing specifically what is expected and when it is due.
13. Grassroots movements. Students at University of British Columbia learned that the weight room at their aquatic center was slated for closure, and through Facebook, won to keep it open.

Benefits

Why use Facebook with your class? Here are some of the benefits you may see when you decide to use Facebook as a learning tool.

1. Inviting atmosphere. Since Facebook isn’t exclusively the instructor’s any more than it is the students’, this offers students an opportunity for active participation on a level playing field.
2. Students are comfortable with Facebook. Most students are already users of Facebook, so implementing it into class provides a comfortable way for students to participate in class.
3. Informal. The informality inherent in Facebook’s connections lend to yet another reason students may be more willing to participate in class activities here.
4. Promotes collaboration. Facebook’s design promotes social interchange between participants, thereby increasing collaboration between students working on activities.
5. Keeps schools current. Mark Federman asserts that universities must move from a skills-centered approach to learning to one of connectivity to stay relevant to students.
6. Students engaged outside of class. When students are accessing the class content more often, that means they will be thinking about and engaging in the lessons more frequently.
7. Ambient awareness. Facebook provides an excellent opportunity for students and instructors to participate in ambient awareness, a way of getting to know those you follow on social networks in more meaningful ways.
8. Teach personal responsibility. Instructors can take this opportunity to teach students how to responsibly use Facebook and other social networking sites so it helps their future–not the opposite.
9. Access to guest speakers. Instructors who have stayed in contact through Facebook with past students who have moved on to their careers have an excellent resource for guest speakers for the class.

Tips for Educators

Educators should check out these suggestions for ways to use Facebook effectively and professionally.

1. Create a separate account just for your classes. Keep two accounts if you want to use Facebook personally as well. This keeps your Facebook relationship at school on a professional level.
2. Manage privacy settings. If you don’t want to manage two accounts, use these tips to manage privacy to keep your personal and professional lives separate.
3. Friend students carefully. Make sure you are friending students in current and former classes for professional purposes. Keep as professional a distance on Facebook as you would in person.
4. Ask students to put you on limited access to their pages. This keeps you from having to see their Spring Break photos, status updates that may indicate why they really missed that midterm, or any other information that may compromise your professional working relationship.
5. Create lists. Create a list for each of your classes, then keep students in each class on that list. This is a great way to organize your students.
6. Publish notes for recognition. If you want to recognize accomplishments of particular students or the effort of an entire class, be sure to write a note indicating what you are recognizing and tag all students involved.
7. Include your class blog. If you have a class blog, import it to Facebook so it shows up there when you add a new blog post.
8. Use as a course management system. Use in place of other course management systems such as Blackboard to access all your online information and connections with fewer restrictions.
9. Stay active. Keep posting messages, use as many Facebook apps and resources as possible, and update status reports so your students know you are engaged and you stay an important part of the Facebook experience.
10. Get over the term “friend”. Many professors are disturbed by the idea of making friends with their students. Instead of adapting the Facebook term in the common way, try to think about the relationship as one of a mentor, or in an Aristotelian version of a utilitarian friend.

Facebook Resources for Students

Students can use these applications and groups to enhance their usage of Facebook in school.

1. weRead. Students can manage the books on their reading lists, connect with others in discussions about the books, and more.
2. Flashcards. Create flashcards on any subject to help reinforce what you need to know.
3. Notely. Organize assignments, classes, notes, and more with Notely. You will need a Notely account to use this Facebook app.
4. Study Groups. If you don’t want to create your own group for a study group, use this app instead that allows for easy collaboration.
5. Hey Math! Challenge. Students can watch flash movies explaining difficult math concepts with this app.
6. CourseFeed. Find online classes or follow your current class when you add this app to your Facebook account.
7. CampusBuddy. This app helps you connect with classmates on your campus.
8. DoResearch4Me. Use this search engine to find online information instead of relying on Wikipedia.
9. SkoolPool. When students use this app, they can research schools, find students, and more to make sure they are embarking on the best education.
10. Notecentric. Take notes during class, then post them for other students with Notecentric.
11. Class Notes. Snap a photo of what the teacher wrote on the board or a copy of your class notes and post them here so everyone can share their visual notes.
12. Used Text Books. Students can buy and sell used text books through this group.
13. Homework Help. This group is a place for students to find and offer help with homework–or just to get a better understanding of difficult concepts.
14. CiteMe. Get properly formatted citations according to APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Turabian style with this app.

Facebook Applications for Teachers

These Facebook apps can make your job easier and more engaging for the students.

1. Calendar. Use this calendar app from 30 Boxes to keep your classes on track with upcoming assignments, tests, due dates, and more.
2. Courses. Manage your courses with this app that allows you to create an instructor page, manage assignments, and more.
3. Mathematical Formulas. This is a great way for math teachers to share formulae and their solutions.
4. Webinaria. Record your class lectures and post them for the class to review on Facebook.
5. Book Tag. Tag books for a class reading list and even create quizzes with this useful app.
6. Language Exchange. If you teach a foreign language, turn students on to this app that gives them a chance to practice what they learn in class.
7. Files. Upload all the important files you want to share with students such as your class syllabus, supplemental reading material, or assignments when you use this app.
8. Make a Quiz!. Easily make quizzes to test your students’ knowledge and see how they score.

Facebook Applications for Both Students and Teachers

These apps are great for both students and teachers and include access to documents, research material, and presentations.

1. Links. Easily post links to interesting things found on the Internet that may be relevant to class.
2. SlideShare. Instructors and students can use this app to create awesome slide presentations as a part of class or to complete an assignment.
3. To-Do List. Who couldn’t use a reminder list of all there is to complete in a day? This app helps with that.
4. JSTOR Search. You may need to access this through your library’s proxy, but this is a great way to find full articles through JSTOR.
5. WorldCat. Search for material available at libraries around the world to find help with your research.
6. Zoho Online Office. If your class is using Zoho for documents, spreadsheets, or presentations, then this app is an invaluable way to access them all through Facebook.
7. Google Docs. Just like Zoho, if you are using Google Docs, access them through Facebook with this app.
8. Podclass. Teachers and students who use a classroom management system can access their courses, assignments, and more through Podclass.
9. LibGuides. Access content from your library with this app.

Facebook Groups for Teachers

These groups show how other instructors are using Facebook in education or work to unite educators through Facebook.

1. Educators using Facebook. This group of educators is over 1,300 strong and shares information and support for using Facebook in education.
2. Facebook for Educators. Join this group to learn how to best use Facebook with your students.
3. Classroom Instruction in Facebook. Find out how this group uses Facebook as a supplement to teaching library class instruction.
4. Education. Find plenty of educators as well as others concerned about education in this group that has a bit of a political focus.
5. Educators of America. This group has some discussion, mostly about the politics of education, but they also post online resources for teachers.
6. Science Educators. Science educators from around the world congregate in this Facebook group.

Facebook in K-12

Facebook isn’t just for higher education. Use these resources for Facebook in the K-12 classrooms, too.

1. Educators Network. Started by a high school teacher in an urban school, this group is all about uniting those who teach young people.
2. Global Educators. These teachers are mostly in K-12 and are focused on teaching globally.
3. ART Educators. Art teachers and those concerned about art programs for students will enjoy the activity on this group.
4. BrainPOP. Teachers who use BrainPOP in their classrooms will definitely want to add this app to their Facebook page.
5. TheApple.com. Become a fan on Facebook and access notes, discussions, and more with the other teachers here.
6. Have Fun Teaching. Started by a teacher experienced in K-6, this is an excellent resource for teachers.
7. Primary Teachers – Resources, ideas, stress relief!. With over 49,000 members, you are sure to find great ideas here.
8. Teachers- sharing ideas and resources for the classroom!. This group is for primary and secondary teachers and is another good place to go for resources.
9. Participate in a summer project. A Kindergarten teacher describes how she used Facebook to keep students engaged and connected over the summer. This idea can work for any grade level.

Facebook to Help Find a Job

Whether you are a graduating student looking for a career or an instructor moving on, these tips will help you use Facebook to find a new job.

1. Get the word out. Guy Kawasaki suggests LinkedIn to get the word out, but Facebook will do just as well when it comes to letting everyone know you are looking for employment.
2. Establish a positive web presence. Use these five suggestions for ways to create a professional web presence on Facebook.
3. Use Facebook job search apps. Most of the major online job search sites such as Career Builders and Indeed have apps on Facebook, so take advantage of them to help you start your career.
4. Understand the importance of social networking. Estimates indicate that only 5-25% of available jobs are actually posted. It’s all about who you know and good timing after that.
5. Find your target company or school. Many companies have a presence on Facebook. See if the companies or schools you are interested in joining are there and follow them to learn about their culture, hiring practices, to see if you know anyone there, and more.
6. Include your resume on Facebook. Be sure to include a link to your online resume on your Facebook page so anyone can access your credentials.
7. Include Facebook on your online resume. Make sure your Facebook page is professional, then include it in your online resume with a profile badge so prospective employers can take a look.
8. Use networking to your advantage. Learn how this woman succeeded with Twitter and think about how you can do the same thing on Facebook.
9. Use Facebook ads to help employers find you. Read about how these students used Facebook ads to get noticed by their future employers.
10. Look through Marketplace. Marketplace on Facebook has a jobs section where you may just luck into your future career.
11. Add Professional Profile. Add the Professional Profile app to your Facebook page to consolidate all your professional information in one place.

 

ELI Focus on Blended Learning

Here are my reflections from the Educause Blended Learning conference.

There are two ways that blended learning has been used in education: a transformative approach and an add on approach.  The key to effective blended learning is finding the right amount of f2f and online instruction.  Also key to successful blended learning is making sure there is a teacher presence.  There sometimes is a tendency to skip the teaching part of an online course because the content is readily available to students.  The content cannot drive the instruction, the teacher must drive the instruction.

An interesting observation while looking at the conference as a whole is that there isn’t an agreed upon definition of blended learning.  However, if you take all the different variations of blended learning together you are able to create your own definition of blended learning, which in my opinion is what counts the most.  The model for blended learning a teacher uses for their classes needs to work for them and might not transcribe to a definition of a colleague or leader in the field.  What really matters are the features of blended learning that are integrated into the course.

Garrison explained seven principles for blended learning, which include: design for open communication and trust, design for critical reflection and discourse, create and sustain sense of community, support purposeful inquiry, ensure students sustain collaboration, ensure that inquiry moves to resolution, and ensure assessment is congruent with intended learning outcomes.  These seven principles do make a nice foundation to start from as we begin to create a blended course, because it forces us to focus on how we need to change our pedagogy to create an enriching learning environment for students.

Just like in a f2f classroom, teachers need to keep students actively engaged in the content, which can be a bit different in an online environment.  This is why teaching presence is important for a blended course.  Students need to know that the instructor is present in the online environment as well as in the f2f environment.  What this means for teachers is that they need to nudge students along and model the type of behavior expected in a blended learning environment.  This has to be an attitudinal change in how we look at blended learning/online education.  Cannot expect students to know what to do.  We must prepare them for a different learning environment than what they are used to.

Dzubian says that students are taking a blended course for three reasons: convenience, convenience, convenience.  There are a variety of reasons why a student may choose to take a blended course, but they ultimately come as a convenience over traditional f2f courses.  The course takes place on their terms, which works well for students with certain personalities and also for students that physically are in a distant location from the f2f classroom.  However, what’s important to remember with blended learning is that “you can lead a student to a webcast or the online learning environment, but you cannot make them think” (Dzubian, Educause Blended Learning Conference).  This is a powerful statement because ultimately, it is up to the student to manage their own learning.

As we begin to look at the creation of a blended course, we need to make decisions based on pedagogical decisions about what parts of the class will work best online and which will work best in a f2f classroom.  Teachers need to look at every aspect of the course, because you may now how to teach in an online course as well as a f2f course, but that doesn’t mean you know how to teach in a blended course.  The environment is different in blended courses, but it does have the potential to be the richest learning environment (Ragan, Educause Blended Learning Conference).

Ragan discussed seven main categories of online teaching competencies with active learning and administration/management being the top two desired components by students.  Students crave engagement, so the learning environment needs to be designed to promote active learning.  Administration/management is also craved by students.  Administration/management is defined by Ragan as the management or administration of the course and learning environment.  Just like all courses, students desire structure and organization, and unsurprisingly, students continue to desire the same in an online environment.  Failure to manage the course in a blended environment will lead to student failure to learn the content.

One of the best ways to prepare faculty for teaching in a blended learning environment is to have them take a course in a blended environment.  This will give them the student experience and model best practices.  Another one of the seven principles that Ragan discussed was that teachers need to set realistic expectations.  It may be easy to become trapped by all the possibilities of blended learning, but it is essential to first survive before you can grow.

You can find all my notes from the conference on my Twitter page at twitter.com/dmourlam.  See everyone’s tweets by searching for #elifocus in Twitter.