How often do you take a step out of your comfort zone?

Watch this video …

Generally speaking, people who don’t take risks are afraid of failing. So they try to keep things within a range that they feel they can control.

John Wooden said, “If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

I say, be a doer … and if you’re going to make mistakes, make big ones. That way your growth and learning will be big.

I strive to create an environment in which they can grow into thriving independent and interdependent individuals who are aware of their gifts and talents, capable of making mature decisions, and dedicated to continual growth. If I don’t push them beyond what they are comfortable with – in fact, if I don’t push myself out of my comfort zones – then growth stops. Randy Pausch in his book, The Last Lecture put it this way,

There is really only one way to teach kids how to develop self-esteem. You give them something they can’t do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process. 

So my challenge for you this week is to look at yourself first and ask, “What can I do build my self-esteem – my knowledge of what I can do and what I need to improve?” And then ask, “What am I doing to help my students/athletes grow into who they were meant to be? What, if anything, am I doing anything to hold them back?”

Make your growth (and that of your students) intentional, rather than reactive!

All of you who raised your hands are invited to share your effective and proven practices through this survey: http://bit.ly/K12Online

The results will be compiled and shared for all to enjoy.

After four presentations I’ve already gotten my money’s worth. My favorite so far was Lorri Krebs‘ presentation Using Team-based Learning to Enhance Student Learning. I will be creating projects for Child Development to take advantage of the affordances of this approach for teaching and learning. Now I’m just waiting for my copy of Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching to arrive.

My notes using ConceptMap MindDraw:

I have been strongly encouraging my C&I 438 – Distance Education – students to use Twitter to begin building their Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). Being hooked into the Twitterverse is amazingly rewarding – what I can give and what I can receive serves to strengthen and expand our collective knowledge. If you were watching Twitter over the last few days you might have seen …

• these great resources for online learning
• this publication on effective online instructional competencies
• this amazing listing of mobile learning resources
• these 10 e-learning freebies
• this listing of where to find global projects
• this binder filled with information about mobile learning
• this report on what kids want to do with their computers and the Internet that they can’t do now

Those 7 posts are merely the tip of the iceberg. So, don’t wait any longer … get out there. You don’t have to worry about contributing yet … just get your feet wet by tapping into this 24/7 professional development network.

To learn how to create your Twitter profile and connect with others check out Tech Tool Tuesday Post #15.

Over the years, as I’ve designed group projects for students, there’s always been an issue with the division of labor. A student or two always seem to do all the work … and students aren’t about to come to me and tattle on the slackers who they’re so frustrated with. So about five years ago I figure out how to create online forms using DreamWeaver. I created a peer evaluation form and had students fill one out for everyone in their groups. Then all I had to do was average the scores and add them into each student’s project grade.

Now, with Google Forms, I can have a peer evaluation up and running in about 15 minutes – once I have the questions, that is. This is the peer evaluation form I use with my undergraduates: Peer Evaluation.

Here’s a quick tutorial and some resources.

Building your form

• Write out the questions you want to ask – have an idea of the type of questions
• Log into Google and go to your Documents
• Click on Create new – then choose Form - the new form will appear in a new tab (or browser page)
• Give the form a title
• Choose the Question Type

• Start typing in your questions
• You can add questions by clicking on the +Add Item icon on the left at the top, or you can copy a question you’ve already created by clicking on the icon to the left of the trash can of any question you are editing.

• While you’re building your form, you can check to see what it looks like.
• At the bottom of your browser screen you’ll see: You can view the published form here
• Click on the link
• You can reorder the questions by clicking and dragging
• If the questions need extra explanations, you can use the Help Text text box
• You can also force a response by clicking on Make this a required question
• Once you’re happy with your questions, you can personalize the form by changing the theme
• Click on Theme: Plain in the upper left hand corner – you’ll see almost 100 choices
• Click on one and see if you like it
• If you do, click Apply
• If not, click Cancel
• Make sure to go to the live form to see how the theme works with your questions – the themes are very different and not all allow for good viewing of the questions.

Final Steps

You can give students access to the form by choosing one of the following before you close the form you’re editing:

• Send the form in an email
• Click on Email this form in the upper right corner of the form
• Enter the email addresses of your students
• Paste the link in your course website
• Click on the link at the bottom of your browser
• Copy and paste that link on a website
• Embed the form in a website – wiki, blog, etc.
• Click on More actions in the upper right corner of the form
• Copy the embed code and use it in your wiki or blog

As your students fill out the form, the information goes into a spreadsheet that you will see in your Google Docs list.

NOTE: When I first started using Google Forms it took me a while to figure out how to find the form to edit after I closed it out. Follow these steps:

• Go to your Google Docs home page
• Click on your form title in your list of documents – the spreadsheet will open
• Click on Form – it’s just above the toolbar icons
• Choose Edit form

Resources

More info on how to build forms and there many uses

• Tutorials
• More tutorials
• Resources from the Google Teacher Academy

General overview

Step-by-step

Leave a comment with other suggestions for using Google Forms.

We’ve all seen some amazing websites – you know, those eye-catchers that play to the artsy side of us while soothing the hyper-organized side. We’ve all been exposed to the horrible sites, too – those that we click away from as soon as possible. “Run away, run away!” (King Arthur’s response to being bombarded with farm animals and attacked by the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog in Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail).

When you are creating something to be viewed on a screen there are several principles to follow. Below you’ll find two presentations that I use to help students create well-designed presentations and websites.

What to avoid:

Example of good design:

It is amazing how much quality information is just a couple of clicks away. You can find tutorials for almost any Web 2.0 tool just by carefully wording your search terms. To find the video(s) you’re looking be specific with your search terms. Like any Web search, if you’re looking for a phrase, surround the words with quotation marks; e.g., “educational technology” “distance education.”

Once you’ve got your search terms, plug them into one of the sites listed below, and let the fun begin.

Search Here

YouTube – The most famous of all

TeacherTube – Educational videos

YouTube Edu – University videos

GoogleVideo – From the Google search engine

Bing Video – From the Bing search engine

Yahoo Video – From the Yahoo search engine

Vimeo – All types of videos

UStream – Host and record your own live session. Searching archived videos for a specific person seems to have the best result.

Also, besides pulling videos off the Web (Web 1.0), you can also upload your videos onto these sites – push it out on the Web (Web 2.0).

Embedding Videos

Whether you’re planning on using the videos in a blog, wiki, or other website, you can embed them in the page.

• First, go to the video that you want to use
• Look for the words Embed – it might say Embed code or in YouTube it says Share – copy that paragraph-long code
• Now find the video widget in your wiki, click on it, and paste the embed code
• If you want to embed a video in your WordPress blog, all you need is the URL – click on the video icon and paste it in
• Click save and ta-da!

Take a look at this video on embedding a YouTube video into Wikispaces:

There were several tutorials listed on the YouTube search results. I chose the one that was posted most recently, rather than the one at the top of the list, to make sure that the latest Wikispaces changes were reflected.

Try it out … search … embed … learn … enjoy!

As you work on your elearning course, it’s important to keep the basics in mind.

1. Start with the end in mind

• Create your objectives – target learning outcomes
• What do you want students to know or be able to do when they finish the course?
• Align your assessments with the objectives
• How will you assess student learning or skill acquisition?
• Align appropriate technologies with the assessments
• What technologies will embellish student learning?

2. Organize, organize, organize

• Create a navigation that is obvious – out in the open
• Put links in a logical order – that may mean a combination of topics and chronology
• Communication and technology directions should be at the top
• Weekly or topical modules come next
• General resources at the bottom
• Provide a course calendar so students can see the course as a whole
• Seek out good models – take a look at other e-learning courses

3. Redundancy … over and over … again and again

• Provide links to important information in more than one place
• Multimodal instructions -  text, image, audio, video

4. Load as you go

• Create the skeleton of the course first so that as you finish building the components you can upload them right away

5. Back it up

• Make sure that you’re backing up your course in more than one place
• Archive a copy from your CMS, wiki, or blog (wherever you’re teaching the course)
• Amazon has recently made 5G available in their cloud
• Use Google Docs
• Save to a memory stick

6. Share who you are

• Letting your personality shine is more important and more difficult in the e-learning environment
• E-learning students need to know that you’re a real person, so do what you can to give them a glimpse at who you are
• Create a social presence in your classroom environment
• Use your voice – create podcasts
• Use your face – create videos
• Connect with Skype or Google Talk

Follow #elearning and #disted on Twitter for your 24/7 elearning professional development.

Resource

Thanks to Simon McIntyre from the College of Fine Arts at The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia for this excellent video series:

Learning to Teach Online project http://bit.ly/d18ac5

Accompanying PDF documents with even more detailed tips and strategies: http://scr.bi/eAcz1k

There comes a time in most online courses where either the facilitator or the learners want to make synchronous contact. It’s fine and dandy to talk to one another in the discussion board or through email, but once in a while our humanness emerges and just wants to make a connection. The following tools enable text, voice-to-voice, and video communication.

We can use Skype and GoogleChat to connect through text, voice, and even video. However, WiZiQ, FlashMeeting, and Elluminate enable robust environments for connecting, communicating, creating, collaborating, and contributing to the conversation. These three multimodal tools increase instructor and student presence and reduce the transactional distance experienced in the 100% online environment.

All three tools enable all attendees to participate in the live text chat, audio and at least one video feed, document sharing, and a whiteboard. You will be able to invite others to your web conference by email and link or calendar sharing. All three tools work across platforms (Mac, PC, Linux).

WiZiQ

A free tool with the following:

• No software download needed
• Automatic widget creation – embed, launch, and conduct the session on a wiki, blog, or website.
• Unlimited number of participants in a session
• Two webcams
• Facilitator controls video, audio, and whiteboard privileges
• Upgrade ($49.95 per year) for unlimited recorded sessions and downloads
• Participants must create a WiZiQ profile to join a session.
• http://www.wiziq.com/Virtual_Classroom.aspx
• Tutorials: http://www.youtube.com/user/WiZiQ77

FlashMeeting

The simplest of all three tools:

• No software download needed
• Enables unlimited number of simultaneous webcam transmissions. Every participant who has a webcam is seen in the web-conference.
• Automatic recordings of sessions
• Only one person can speak at a time. Participants are cued up when they click the broadcast button and will be able to speak as the person before unclicks the mic.
• Hosted by E2BN, East England Learning Grid, requires permission to book sessions
• Go to http://flashmeeting.e2bn.net, and register as a participant
• To become a booker, send educational address on school email to admin@e2bn.org
• Tutorial: http://www.iprimary.co.uk/tutorial.php?tutorialID=007

Elluminate

The Cadillac of tools:

• Requires a software download for each session
• Breakout rooms – put participants in separate rooms for discussion, brainstorming, and collaboration
• Only the main room is recorded
• Polls and results
• Subscription costs $499 for 50-seat annually
• Free 3-participant sessions through Elluminate at http://www.learncentral.org/
• LearnCentral members can schedule a session for large audiences at http://www.learncentral.org/group/3432/host-your-own-webinars
• Tutorials and educational opportunities: http://www.learncentral.org/

SIDENOTE:

I just ran across a very cool free screencast tool for those times you want to share your desktop with others: https://join.me/

• Click the bright orange Share arrow – no need to log in
• Click ok when the pop-up window asks if it’s ok to share your desktop
• Send out the link provided in the widget that appears at the top of your screen
• You can start a telephone conference call – they provide the number and access code
• When others join the screencast the chat is enabled
• You can pause the screencast – this enables you to do something behind the curtain that your participants won’t see
• Participants are listed
• You can share controls of the screen – have a student/colleague sign up for a join.me session and send you the link; then he/she can share the controls and you can help solve problems or do a show-and-tell on his/her computer

If you want to capture the session, use one of the following:

• Mac
• QuickTime on machines with Snow Leopard
• Cross-platform
• New: http://www.screencast.com/
• Comparison of tools by Kelly Walsh