Using Communication Technology To Extend the Classroom

I've been attending a series of excellent Academic Technology workshops at Boise State and wanted to share my notes (yes, drafted, saved, and organized in Evernote). The real key will be finding time VERY soon to try some of these tools. Otherwise, I'm afraid they will go the way of all that great information I learned in Excel workshops over the years but never managed to internalize (even now, spreadsheets make me break into a cold sweat!). So, here's what I learned about Piazza.com, NowComment.com and Jing.com:

A common theme: These are all strategies that can augment in-class activity.

Piazza.com: A discussion forum that allows students to answer other students' questions (in a revisable wiki-like entry); it works best with conceptual vs transaction information/discussion.

How do you get students to answer the questions? Seeding some straightforward questions (like when office hours are) so students become familiar. Or start conversations in the class and put the follow up questions on Piazza. Or force students to the site for FAQs on syllabus-type questions or homework clarification or delivery of additional notes.

Other tidbits:

• You can enable anonymous participation -- or anonymous among peers, but known to you. 
• Students can answer/discuss at their own pace.
• It's a way to link discussions among classes.

A caution: It can lead to extra prep time. You really need to evaluate the cost vs the benefit.

NowComment.com: Allows you to upload and discuss a document online in a less messy way than Google docs. It's built along the lines of a threaded discussion with anchor points within the document. Potential uses: For peer review (a way to model and/or take the workshop outside of class); for readings (students can comment on/discuss the text inside or outside of class through this web-based program); for teaching annotation practices.

Jing: The discussion was specifically how it can be used to extend discussion outside the classroom and how it might be used in concert with the other programs. A good question to consider: How can these platforms work in concert to enhance student learning?

Composition+Digital Literacy

Great discussion in last night's ProDev group -- including some important questions that we need to continue to consider in teaching composition. Among these:

• Whose responsibility is it to ensure that students have the digital literacy they need to for success at the university and beyond? Is this yet another role to be absorbed into First Year Writing?
• How can we improve access to technology in our classrooms and campuses? I like the idea of the iPad cart!
• What writing/research activities get squeezed out by digital assignments? How do we know how much in-class time is appropriate for teaching digital literacy skills (and which of these skills count as writing instruction)?

I will admit it: I am dazzled by digital technology. I feel fortunate to be part of these discussions to help me reign in my enthusiasm a bit and replace it with old fashioned critical reflection about my assumptions (that digital technology will save the world!). 

A great site to explore/continue thinking about the role of the Internet in students lives: Imagining the Internet: A History and a Forecast.

Ever-useful Evernote

I’d like to introduce you to my new best friend: Evernote. I’d heard a lot about this handy web-based app, as a miracle worker for the disorganized and a great tool to access and share information quickly. I know I’m about three years behind the curve on this; I find that with technology, unless there is something really tangible, an obvious and pressing need it can fill, I start to feel overwhelmed and shy away, back to the old standbys of e-mail and Blackboard.

For me, this need occurred when I purchased a new Mac Book Pro. I wanted to begin using my shiny new Chiclet immediately (after first giving her a name, of course), but I didn’t have software and I didn’t have any of the files on her from my old, creaking PC. Because my PC doesn’t like to play with Mac, the migration software I downloaded did not work (or did not work quickly enough). My impatience led me to test some features of Evernote related to uploading pdfs and organizing notes and lectures for my class. So far, so good. I’ve even tried out the audio note feature and added some images. I’m working on building mini-lectures directly into Evernote that I will be able to access and tweak wherever me and my iPad may be.

While this isn’t necessarily teaching with digital technology, it is organizing and planning and teacherly composing with digital technology. I am planning to work on my Evernote skills in hopes that I can help students use its features in their writing and research.