Another step in my VCC journey begins today with the start of PIDP 3260. I had a fantastic summer travelling through Europe and a hectic September trying to keep up with the challenges that seem to arise with every new school year. I am really looking forward to improving my instructional skills and continuing my lifelong learning journey.
PIDP 3240 was another great course with a lot of steep Learning Curves for me. I learned a lot and it really gave me a nudge to embrace emerging technologies in the classroom and mobile technologies.
Like every PIDP course, the participants made the course and the instructor, Brian Cassell did a fantastic job getting everything moving in the right direction and then letting it all unfold organically. Many thanks to the other participants for the great forum posts contributing to my learning and the great feedback about my assignments. It has been a long winter term and I am looking forward to a bit of a break before resuming my learning journey in the fall. Thanks to all the class participants and good luck going forward! I really wan't sure how a Wiki could be used in a College classroom but I found this great example from a Digital Media course in a program that was a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Sheridan College.. I found this Wiki page through a list at https://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
https://ccit333.wikispaces.com/home has a great example of how a Wiki was used in lieu of the Learning Management System WebCT. Most aspects that could be found on the LMS are on the Wiki. Students would set up Wiki pages to contribute to the class content. The main page had all the standard course information including messages and the assignment guide. They even set up a test review page to help each other out. I can definitely see this as a great alternative approach to a Class site. I will admit to being a twitter neophyte. Initially I thought this was something used by D list celebrities for self-promotion and other frivolous things. I am beginning to see the value of twitter in the classroom. I have viewed a couple of live video chats with a live tweet feed where the viewers could tweet in questions to the presenters.
During our last couple of Skills Competitions, twitter was used to spread the word about events going on and who the competition front runners were at any given moment. This really added to the excitement about the events. I could also use Twitter to pass along information to students like a classroom change or a class cancellation. A lot of Professors and scientists also use twitter, with some having many followers. Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson has 3.5 million followers for example. Like everything else related to the internet, there a lot of chaff out there, but there are also some pearls worth searching out, and Twitter is no exception. I have entered the twitter age - @petar_krndija In a course about technology and instructional media like PIDP 3240, there are a lot of great resources posted in the forums. It would be impossible to capture everything of course, but here is a sample.
Articles This page has an exhaustive list of all sorts of instructional resources available. http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools The Blogger Larry Cuban argues it isn't about the technology like smartboards, it's all about the instructor. https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/we-dont-need-smart-boards-we-need-smart-people-jerry-brodkey/ This is an article PDF I discussed in my podcast regarding the effectiveness of MOOC's authored by G.Fischer. http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~gerhard/papers/2014/distance-ed-journal.pdf Videos Here is a Video about the twin technologies of short throw projectors and smart pen software. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYAaW4fHblo This video gives some powerpoint tips. We have all been frustrated by the abuse of powerpoint. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o Information Literacy is a critical skill. With good, bad, and dangerous information available online, it is important that the researcher understands the quality and verifies the accuracy of the information found online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSWknQ98o8 William Fisher has a great video series called Copyright X, including this one on the subject of litigating fair use. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jtTM4u4v4o Web 2.0 tools allow you to connect, share, collaborate, and be productive. There are hundreds if not thousands of web based and apps that allow you to be creative like never before. Some of the tools I have used in my classroom include SurveyMonkey which allows you to create your own surveys. I have used this tool at work to evaluate training I have participated in. It can also be used for needs assessment or to get feedback from your students regarding a lesson or classroom activity.
Many people are familiar with Prezi, a web based tool that can really make a stale old PowerPoint pop by presenting the information in a visually pleasing way. A great tool to use when doing a project in a group at work or at home is Trello. This great tool allows you organize tasks you have completed, tasks in progress, and things to do in a very visually pleasing way using a card based system that is very user friendly. I used this with some colleagues at work to organize the tasks related to updating a course to make it ready for a Learning Management System. Trello kept the group in the loop and kept us on task with who was responsible for what and the necessary timelines. I recently began using a word cloud site called Tagxedo. This is a great tool to use with second language learners for teaching vocabulary. Quizlet is another great tool for language learners that allows them to learn definitions, spelling, pronunciation, and to practice pairing words with the definition or play various games to help build vocabulary. It makes things fun and really engages my students. Some Web 2.0 tools I will be checking out that I learned about in the course include:
I am definitely not a web 2.0 expert, but I am trying to change that. Beginning in May I signed up for a MOOC about Web 2.0 tools and their application in the college classroom that I am really looking forward to. My learning is a journey similar to that of my students. Process Operations is a technology dependent field, so it is probably no surprise that Process Operations training relies on a lot of technology. I am fortunate to work at a college in the Middle East where the resources are made available to get cutting edge equipment for our students. We have a state of the art Process Control room with 16 student work stations. There is a photo available on my "About" page.
Some of the tools at my disposal include: The Sim Solutions Virtual Refinery Simulator This is a fantastic software suite that allows students to see both the Control panel view on the computer, and an outside operator view that shows what equipment looks like in the field. Students are really enthusiastic about being able to see what is happening in a realistic plant scenario. Another favourite is the Simtronics Simulations DSS-100 Simulator This software has a simulation available for most Oil and Gas manufacturing units and some instrumentation and control modules as well. Getting away from computer simulation and into more hands on simulators, I use some Canadian made Darbytech training plants. These are great compact units that can give students the opportunity to see how processes work in a safe environment. The pictures of the Three Phase Separator and Gas Absorption Trainers on their website were taken at my College. Another manufacturer of amazing equipment trainers is the Cussons UK Education and Training Division. We make extensive use of their thermodynamic and air flow trainers and also use diesel engine, gas turbine, and steam turbine trainers with my students. Other major pieces of equipment we have include pumps, compressors, boilers, heat exchangers and much more. It all helps to give the students as realistic a learning experience as possible. There are many websites and blogs devoted to discussing the latest trends and tools available for educators to use. Another avenue for learning about new tech and online events are podcasts. Using podcasts in the classroom is a great way to give quick information and direction to your students. With software like Audacity, and hosting services like Authorstream and MyBrainshark, any instructor can get their voice heard online. Of course most LMS are also equipped to handle audio and video as well.
On my links page I have added a section for podcasts, including the sites mentioned below. http://edtechcrew.net/ http://edreach.us/edcast/edceptional/ The iClicker software is a student response system that integrates with the Learning Management Software. The iClicker can be used for polling or taking quizzes. The instructor can get instant feedback about the effectiveness of a lesson. The instructor could give formative assessments and have the results synced through the Learning Management software. Don't take my word for it, watch the video. Using social media in the classroom is something that I really support. My Second language trades students can be hard to motivate at times. A recurring issue has been students forgetting to bring coveralls in for shop classes. One way I have adapted as an instructor is to send messages to students the day before and the day of a practical demonstration of kills. In this way, the student is more likely to remember. If they claim I am harangining them with messages, I tell them I will gladly stop sending dual reminders when they can prove to me everyone will remember their Personal Protective Equipment when they are told to bring it. Similarly I use a messaging software to remind the students about reviews and quizzes.
This article on the Insight website describes some other uses for social media in the classroom. http://www.insight.com/insighton/education/educators-can-embrace-social-media-engage-students/ |
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