Over the course of the academic year of 2020-2021 (including the last few weeks of the spring '20 semester), both faculty and students have had to "pivot" to a world of zoom meetings and fully online learning. For some, the transition was difficult, but I would like to believe that for everyone it provided opportunities for learning new skills and "meeting" students in a world they are largely very comfortable in - the virtual one.
If educators put aside the obvious drawbacks of moving from an on-campus to a fully online teaching and learning environment, it is possible to see some exciting ways in which to apply digital tools to the classrooms we will (hopefully) return to in the fall. For example, how do we "stay connected" to our students outside of the 3-5 hours of in class, on ground contact we traditionally have with them? What tools did we implement out of necessity over the past year that might actually transition quite well for us in future on ground courses? Below are some of the digital tools I used to engage my students with me, one another, and the wider global community. All of them offer engagement possibilities for enhancing both online and on-ground teaching. One possible digital tool that offers rich possibilities in keeping students connected to their teachers and to one another is Voice Thread. Voice Thread is an interactive platform that allows instructors and students to actively engage with content - asking questions, embedding videos, etc. While there is a subscription fee, many Universities have institutional subscriptions (or might be convinced to obtain one). This tool is ideal for creating a "flipped" classroom in which much of the preparation for a class discussion is conducted online prior to the actual class. This makes in class discussion and further study more focused, in-depth and informed. Similarly, podcasts can serve the same purpose. Here is a link to my SoundCloud channel: https://soundcloud.com/you/tracks. I have used audio to provide feedback on student work as well as to provide instructional content. Similarly, creating video lectures using a tool such as Microsoft Stream, which is more widely available to teachers using a Microsoft platform, can allow students to view, and even return to, instruction prior to a class meeting. Video instruction can also be created using a YouTube Channel and, by making it "unlisted" only accessible to those who have the link - keeping student work private and your work available only to those you want to view it as an instructor. Both YouTube videos and Microsoft Stream easily interface with most institutions' learning delivery systems such as Blackboard. I also used software such as Animoto (videos with music) and Screen Cast-o-Matic for both my own content and for student projects. https://youtu.be/YeXIl_SoBqw https://youtu.be/jRpO1eln2V0 https://youtu.be/P836u-ohzs8 Of course, like many, I used FlipGrid to attempt to create a virtual "community of learners" but I have been using that with my online courses for many years. It is both loved and hated by students but I find it an effective way for me and the students to "see" and "hear" one another in a fully online course setting. It also provides the transferable skill of "video readiness" for when students are interviewing virtually for jobs. It can also serve as a "pre-writing" tool, as students have to organize their ideas and clearly articulate thoughts about any given topic. As educators, sometimes our students truly are our teachers and I have embraced the possibility of social media offering space for teaching and learning. In my graduate education academic writing course, adults with a "Twitter hesitancy" (to say the least) have learned to embrace the platform as a "personal learning network" in which they engage with other educators in leadership across the globe (taking them far beyond the confines of their own districts). We have used a #hashtag to collect and view one another's tweets on education and writing issues (#RCR701Writing). My undergraduates have less hesitancy about using Twitter and Instagram so it is easier for me to "harness" those platforms as learning environments than it is with my graduate students. In my literature course, I have students follow individual accounts related to literature and writing (The New Yorker, Grammar Girl, Paris Review, etc.) They share "interesting tweets" on a google doc and comment upon one another's posts. At the end of the semester, almost all of my students (even those who claim not to be interested in reading!) say they will continue to follow their chosen account (they have some agency in choosing an account from a list I provide at the beginning of the semester).https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JaD_1kfhCu9J0kLRvFLBDIP0acey31HJ-X78XeQESEU/edit?usp=sharing My creative writing students use Twitter as a public platform for their writing, joining the community of online creative nonfiction writers using the "tiny truths" hashtag created by the online journal Creative Nonfiction #cnftweet There is great excitement among my student writers if one of their tweets is "re-tweeted" by the site as it becomes eligible to be included in a published collection. It also connects them to the wider writing community beyond the classroom. As part of my literature course, because we were meeting half on campus and half online, we created virtual book groups for the online session. Groups were assigned based on which novel a student was interested in reading (again, from a list provided). The novels supplemented our course work in short stories, drama, and poetry. There was a mix of classic and contemporary literary fiction to choose from, as I wanted to give students some agency over their novel reading as it is a bigger commitment of time than any other genre. As part of the book groups, students blogged about literary devices such as characterization and setting, including lines from the text to demonstrate close reading. They also conducted research into the novels - about the author, reviews, adaptations. And, they posted images that related to specific lines from the novel on Instagram, using a #hashtag of #WeReadNovelsSHU and our course number. All of this work was done on a website designed by the group which allowed them to develop important technology skills that would transfer beyond our course and also which encouraged a high level of writing quality as the sites represent a public space. https://sarahskeyeng201ah.weebly.com eng201lhcrawdads.weebly.com Years ago, I developed a platform using WordPress that connected First Year Seminars from multi-disciplines in conversation outside the Seminar setting, at the direction of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He had heard about my earlier Master's work in integrating interactive technologies into a higher education core curriculum and tapped me for the vision he had of a shared intellectual experience. SHUsquare, as we called it, went on to win the innovative technology prize from the Online Learning Consortium and served as a platform where students and faculty engaged in "hubs" of conversation beyond the classroom. This kind of "digital public square" would ensure a sudden "pivot" to online learning provided educators and students alike with a shared teaching and learning space. Any educator can create a "virtual space" in which the teaching and learning continue beyond the restrictive four walls of a classroom - I know I am going to continue to use the "lessons learned" from pandemic teaching long after this very unusual and challenging academic year is only a distant memory and long after the masks are off.
1 Comment
Marisa Valente
7/3/2021 01:49:45 pm
I am taken with the countless stories of innovation and adaptation that came from our quarantine experience. Your fluency in the tech space as an educator, and your willingness to tinker, experiment, and employ an array of tools is thrilling to read about! As always, Marie, you inspire me. Thank you for sharing your experience so generously.
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I teach literature, creative writing, and a Great Books course in Catholic thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. I have also developed and taught a graduate course in academic writing as part of a fully online doctoral program in Educational Leadership for the College of Education at SHU. In addition, I have taught a First Year Writing Seminar at the undergraduate level and a special course on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition for post-graduate Nursing students.
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