What Could've Been: #et4Online68425 2015 Presentation Notes

Hello to all who are / may / might be thinking of attending session #et4online68425, I'm sorry I couldn't be there to present in person due to personal reasons.

Title of Presentation:

When Graduate Students Become Online Instructors:
A First-Time Online Instructor's Teaching Toolbox

The proposal can be retrieved at

http://olc.onlinelearningconsortium.org/conference/2015/et4online/when-graduate-students-become-online-instructors-first-time-online-instruc

The website for our presentation is at: http://rampages.us/gradtoonlineteach/


This presentation started when my colleague and I met a group of students from PSYC 795 Practicum in the Teaching of College Psychology (Fall 2014). The provocation to create a resource arose when I observed that graduate students who had not taught or had limited teaching experience were concerned about teaching in a different learning environment.

How does one teach online? Especially when one is just learning to teach in person? Also, when asked about specific questions they might have about teaching online, what might they be? I observed that they found it challenging to articulate their concerns. They expressed very broad concerns about challenges they might face and wanted to know more about teaching strategies.

I took their concerns and my observations of their behavior to heart and wrote the proposal. Stan and I both created the website as documentation. As a Visible Thinking/Visible Learning/Reggio-inspired learning proponent, I believe in documentation for retrospective but also prospective reasons. I hope this website will provoke different interpretations and sharing of ideas.

If you feel at times like the students we encountered, I hope that you would feel free to enter a question or more, into the web form at: http://rampages.us/gradtoonlineteach/chime-in/ 

Metamorfosi website: Screenshot of Chime In page

I had intended to raise 3 questions with participants at the session and I hope readers will comment on this as they feel led:

• How do you conduct needs assessment about something learners know little about?
• What are novice instructors' first thoughts about online teaching? How do you begin to extend their knowledge and practice?
• How do we integrate technology seamlessly into our teaching sessions?

I am attaching our proposal for anyone who might wish to download it.  Proposal PDF

I miss being there in person, but life unfolds, and we deal with it. Wishing all a great conference! 

Designing a Course Worth Learning Part 2

I learned about assistive technology when I was on a graduate teaching assistantship and tasked with shadowing a senior graduate assistant before she graduated. I was to then take over her Assistive Technology course for pre-service teachers.

Over the years, I've gained a greater awareness and understanding of disability and accessibility. But I still have a lot to learn. I believe every instructional designer (and instructor) must be equipped with the knowledge and skills to design accessible courses.

As I plan to teach a summer online course, I want to make my course worth learning to students. In order to do so, all students enrolled in the course must be able to access course information. If any of them has a disability and would be using some form of assistive technology to access course information, I want to plan with that in mind. Mostly, I strongly desire to make my online course materials universally accessible to all learners, with or without disabilities. Last Friday, I was fortunate to have a JAWS user check out some pages on my course site. I've seen JAWS on YouTube and read of what it can do. To actually see a blind/low-vision user use JAWS is an eye-opener. (JAWS is a screen reader. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader ). This post outlines three important things to bear in mind when designing online courses.

I tried to video-record the session at the important parts, but the videos didn't turn out so well. My colleague who arranged the session for me, Debbie Roberts, from the Division of Academic Success (MCV campus), videotaped a few clips with her iPhone. Below is one of her clips I edited.

1. JAWS provides a summary of the layout of the page. [30 sec video]

My Welcome page contained 1 frame, 13 regions, 13 headings and 162 links (really?). The summary by JAWS points to the importance of course content organization and the use of appropriate headings.

2. Use Style Options on the HTML Editor 

If you are using WordPress, make sure you use Headings offered by the Editor.

WordPress HTML Page Editor

3. Add ALT TEXT Descriptions to ALL Images

When we asked our blind friend what were the top 10 issues faced by blind web users, he listed this as the top challenge. I heard this illustrated myself as JAWS scanned the course site and attempted to read the images on the Twitter stream and on my course pages. JAWS kept saying:

Link to image... Link to image... Link to image...

There were links but there were no descriptions to images on my Twitter stream. No one thinks about it when they tweet. Fortunately, there is Easy Chirp, an alternative web option to Twitter. You can sign in on Twitter through EasyChirp [http://www.easychirp.com/]

@NeilMilliken @EasyChirp @dboudreau Thanks for the feedback. It's an important area that is all too often overlooked. #AXSChat
— Ability First (@AbilityFirstLdn) April 14, 2015

When JAWS read the alt text to the image on my Welcome screen, Mr. MF, the JAWS user, turned to me and said, "Thank you for including the alt text."

Such a simple thing to do and he was so grateful. Could we all just make that little effort?

Online Teaching is like Learning a New Language

Online Teaching is Like Learning a New Language

Is online teaching like learning a new language?

Do bilingual (or multilingual) teachers find it easier to switch from face-to-face to online teaching? 

For several weeks, I pondered these questions as I tarried at the intersection of two/three facets of my life -- online teaching, online course design and learning French (Français or Française?). The second question is a hypothesis I intend to investigate!

Le magazine de l'Alliance
 de Singapour 1993

[Back Story: When I was twelve or thirteen, I wanted to learn French, but was dissuaded by my then Form Teacher, who felt all of us should focus on our core subjects. I dutifully listened to her and live to regret this decision. When I started working, I went to the Alliance Français de Singapour and began learning French with a colleague. We stopped because work got in the way. I'm starting all over again -- to learn the language I'd long wanted to learn.]

Learning a new language involves embracing a new lexicon, new pronunciation, new way of writing, a new culture ... New is the word. Everything is strange and très difficile. But I won't give up because I'm motivated to attain some proficiency in it. It's a childhood dream; my heart is involved, not just my mind.The French language is beautiful. I may not understand French songs but I love listening to its sounds. I will persist despite the challenges. It just goes to show how in learning, we must appeal to students' hearts too -- emotions must be engaged, not just the mind.

Listening to my French teacher takes a lot of concentration from me. Although I'm less overwhelmed than I was in Day 1, I feel like an outsider and am the slowest student in the class. I speak French with diffidence; I don't know quite often how to conjugate verbs or articulate the 's' or 'e' sounds. When I grasp some of the words she is speaking, I feel relieved that I can nod my head and say "Oui!" If not, it's an "Encore, s'il vous plait?" most of the time. One day, it dawned on me that this must feel a bit like how first-time instructors of online teaching feel. Anxiety. Trepidation?

Akin to foreign language (FL) learning, there is much to deal with and more is at stake in online teaching than in FL learning. My musings -- Question 1:

How do we make it less challenging for new online instructors to negotiate a new culture with a new vocabulary? 

For me, I know I must immerse myself in a French speaking and writing environment more often.
Question 2:

How do we support new online instructors so that they have opportunities to be immersed more frequently in online learning environments? [What does this look like? E-mentoring?]

Hypothes.is for Shared Annotation

A week ago, Laura (my colleague) tweet-alerted me to someone who had annotated my extended comment to her Twitter Journal Club blogpost.

@yinbk @SuzanKoseoglu @merryspaniel @JeffreyKeefer - @jgmac1106 added an annotation page to his website http://t.co/BzTIojdw3n #cool #tjc15
— Laura Gogia (@GoogleGuacamole) March 13, 2015

It was Greg McVerry, a supergeek. (He knows all these cool tools I've been playing with.) He had responded to my blogpost by annotating and replying to the ideas. Impressive!

@yinbk @GoogleGuacamole @SuzanKoseoglu @merryspaniel @JeffreyKeefer A #tjc15 annotation: http://t.co/RP1kx66oYy
— Greg McVerry (@jgmac1106) March 13, 2015

Intrigued, I had to check out Hypothes.is before the second Twitter Journal Club happening. I fiddled with it and used it to annotate #tjc15's second journal article. 

For inquiring minds, Hypothes.is is a Google Chrome extension. You can collaboratively tag, annotate, and comment on other users' public notes and annotations. 

Hypothes.is features

This is something Diigo already allows me to do, but Hypothes.is allows me to show a stream of annotations based on a tag. One thing that I found annoying though, was that I had to keep changing the setting from private/only me to public for every annotation. Is it me, who hasn't found the key to unlock this default private setting? 

Check out the tag stream of #tjc15

The affordances of this Google Chrome extension are pretty slick. I can think of how it might be used in my teaching. Thanks very much, Greg McVerry!

And by the way, what a name!!!

Thinking about Student Blogs and Community Building

Explaining hyperlinked blog concept to client using graphic depiction

"So you mean we are sharing cyberspace?" 

Seven words that offered a glimpse into our client's thinking. I will refer to her as Ms. Z. [Stan and I met with her.]

Some background information before I continue. She had come to ALT Lab, bogged down by barriers to blogpost-editing and seeking some assistance on how to integrate Timeline into a blogpost.

From her instructor's [Dr. Halo, pseudonym] course site [BEY 500, fake course name], Ms. Z was able to "jump to" and "see" her own blog site. Happily, she has also been blogging on her own in Rampages.us. Yet, how was she not able to edit her own blogposts when she clicked on her instructor's course site and landed on her own blog site? These bits of information gave me clues to her understanding about the concept of mother blog (and student blog) and how things work in an open connected course.

There were some details I clarified with her by drawing out the different entities on the whiteboard:

1. Her blog site and Dr. Halo's course site are two separate entities despite the fact that her blogsite is hyperlinked to Dr. Halo's site. She can access Dr. Halo's course site -- which is also on rampages.us -- via the front door/public view, but she cannot enter from the back end/dashboard view, just as she does for her own blog site. Ms. Z has no control over her instructor's site, she is a student user, not a site administrator. As administrator of her own blog site, Ms. Z can edit her site and create new pages and posts.

Dr. Halo had linked to Ms. Z's blog site (and other students' blogs) using URL links, and not pulling in student content via RSS feed syndication (which Stan and I initially thought was the root of all the confusion). Pulling in students' blogs via RSS feeds would have created the mother blog functionality that I mentioned earlier.

2. Ms. Z wanted to be able to use Timeline and incorporate it in her blog site. Stan explained and demonstrated how Ms. Z could do that, with me chipping in at parts. Ms. Z reviewed the finished product and preferred a more text-based product. Stan suggested using Google Doc instead. After embedding it into her blog site, it still didn't achieve the look Ms. Z wanted. Stan ended up just adding the link to her blogpost.

Ms. Z jotted down notes of our explanations. But one thing that she kept repeating was, "So I go to rampages.us, then under My Sites, look for my blog site, and ..."

I noticed a few striking details:

• Being able to log in and "do something" on her own site seemed to occupy her mind  considerably. She needed really clear, step-by-step instructions on how to get to her site. 
• Despite being aware of her classmates' blog sites (they were all hyperlinked to Dr. Halo's course site), she was not aware of what they were writing about or doing until we clicked on one of the blogs and showed her what her classmate was doing. 
• Depicting the different software applications as separate entities helped her to understand how she would work -- that is, where were the gateways and the sandbox. Not understanding how to gain access stopped her from frolicking in the playground.
• Ms. Z wanted the demo examples to be left published on her blog although they didn't contain real data. She wanted examples of how things were actually done so she could easily follow the steps when doing things on her own. 

In closing, this consultation raised a few questions:

• Does aggregating content in a course site create community? The technical structure facilitates community building. But how does community really come about? What makes participants in the community want to check out each other's content and actually connect? 
• How can we better help students to navigate the sites -- mother blog and student blogs -- so that they can understand the relevance and purpose of these structures and want to engage further? 

A Bold Experiment: Live-Skim-Tweet Journal Article #tjc15

Laura Gogia, a.k.a @GoogleGuacamole, my ALT Lab colleague (NOT a Google App as one of my Twitter friends thought!) invited me to her community's experiment to live-tweet reading a journal article. I needed little persuasion because #1. I enjoy Twitter chats and #2. I am highly curious and like to learn new things. It turned out to be a thoughtful learning experience.

There are 2 dimensions about the event I'm going to highlight in this blogpost and a third one I would need to think a bit more about:

1. The Article (pdf)

Personally, one of the big gains of this experience is the article; knowing about it, interacting with the ideas of the authors and with others who read/were reading the article. In this new connectivist learning paradigm, the role of the teacher in MOOCs has been a subject of some private consideration and discussing it openly is progress for the field of open access education.

By themselves, MOOCs do not all fit a simple typology; either as an xMOOC or a cMOOC (Ross, Sinclair, Knox, Bayne & Macleod, 2014). There are "fifty shades of MOOCs" (Just kidding!). Anecdotally, I've participated in several MOOCs on various platforms, and they've been noticeably different to me, even for some of those hosted within the same platform. Suffice to say, as a grand experiment, the various components of a MOOC -- the teacher(s), learners, learning activities, assessment, etc. -- are worth examining. But as the authors rightly indicated, the role of a MOOC teacher -- allegedly a rock-star, co-learner, or an automated assessor of learning tasks -- is nuanced. To downgrade teaching to only "facilitation" (Ross, Bayne, Macleod & O'Shea, 2011) in cMOOCs does not capture the fullness and richness of what teaching is all about, in all contexts. Just as every learner is different and we have Differentiated Instruction, Universal Design for Learning and multiple learning theories to attempt to explain the intricacies in learning and teaching, we need more dialogue on the role of a MOOC teacher. After all, MOOCs don't seem to be disappearing from the learning horizon in the immediate future.

Here are two quick thoughts I have after reading the article:

• Are MOOCs and online education to be regarded as subsets, one of the other, or do they just overlap along some dimensions? This is significant because at some point, the article appears to suggest a discussion of the role of the MOOC teacher would have some implications for our thinking about the role of the online teacher (pg. 62):

From our earliest conversations as a team, in Spring 2012, about whether we could develop a MOOC, and how this would challenge and refine our beliefs about good practices in online education, this has been a process of critical experimentation. 

My perspective is that online learning can have degrees of in-person teaching components different from most MOOCs. Online education can include blended learning (sometimes called hybrid learning) components with some mandatory in-state residency hours. Online courses can also be crafted using different modalities.  Some are entirely synchronous in nature, and not all online courses are massive, even though they may have large enrollments. When we use the term online courses or online education, they are typically used in reference to institutional online education programs designed to confer specific credentials upon program completion. Although MOOC providers are now experimenting with signature courses with a targeted sequence that leads to specialization certificates, MOOCs and online education are not synonymous.

MOOC participants tend to have significant years of formal education, "just over 60% had post-graduate level qualifications" (p. 63). Most of these students participate in MOOCs to learn something new -- highly motivated non-traditional(?) students -- not to check off a list of program requirements.

The above-mentioned factors may distinguish the role and responsibilities of online teacher(s) from MOOC teachers. What we learn from this article about MOOC teachers may have some implications for online teachers, but I'd comment that the two terms -- MOOCs and Online Education -- are quite distinct from each other.

• Teacher identity received a fair bit of discussion both within the article and during the Twitter chat. Watson (2009, cited in Ross et al, 2014) singled out three related sites for academic identity -- the department, the institution (Aren't these both the professional sites where a teacher enacts his/her role(s)?) and the personal/professional context. To me, the personal and the professional facets of a teacher's life are entwined and the sum of these experiences shape her teaching and teacher identity. A teacher who says s/he could easily disentangle the personal from the professional in her teaching roles and responsibilities is begging the question, "What makes one a teacher?" I'd say ALL of his/her life experiences, but Parker Palmer would say, [Catherine Cronin cited him in a tweet], We teach who we are (Parker, 2007).  

Like Parker, I ask, "Who is the self that teaches?" because "the human heart-- is the source of good teaching." Many or most educational institutions prize the intellect of teachers, oftentimes neglecting the emotional and spiritual dimensions of teaching, tying academic identity to research accomplishments, less to teaching efforts. Erroneously, not to recognize and support the other dimensions of the teacher's life is to bankrupt him/her; and as Ross et al mention, is to diminish and mischaracterize the teacher. 

Ross et al disclosed the authentic but ambivalent feelings they had as new MOOC teachers: anxiety, excitement and vulnerability in negotiating the newness of the experience. I hope they follow up on the question they posed to MOOC teachers: "How can we provide reassuring and recognizable evidence of our attention earlier?" Not an easy question to answer for sure at a site with thousands of participants, but I feel connection with students trump co-participation and co-learning pedagogical approach. Insert a course introduction video into the course right at the beginning where every MOOC teacher is presented and schedule a Google Hangout ASAP.


2. Doing the Event

I had little expectations for the event and even less preparation. Laura told me I didn't need to read in advance and I'd participated in Twitter chats before, so I thought I was "prepared" for the event. When the time came, I showed up "online," calm but eager to see how it would all unfold. Laura provided some tips for event setup, so I tried to highlight chunks of text for discussion, using Acrobat X Pro and my free Windows snipping tool. Here's the visual for Jeffrey Keefer who asked about the tool:

Windows PC snipping tool

What was unusual about this event is the fact that it was touted as a live reading event. It's somewhat paradoxical for me to read and talk at the same time. Reading is a silent time for me, outwardly. My mind is far from silent, and so the busyness of tweeting, reading (skimming really!) and interacting with other participants was quite a cognitive overload for me (and maybe me alone). In other Twitter chats I've participated in, we were given questions ahead of time to prepare for the chat if we wanted to. There was an agenda set up ahead of time. This live-tweet reading event was rather disorienting for me because of the nature of the reading material. It was rich, complex and full of interesting quotes. As it is right now, in its present format and form, I feel that the pace of Twitter interactions and communication does not do a rich journal-article-reading justice. We did retrieve some gems from the article. We raised a few interesting ideas, but the depth of exchange that I was expecting escaped me. I had expected more from my own history of having participated in journal article discussions in person. (Maybe it is me who needs to change?) Several threads of conversation were going on at the same time; threads I couldn't make sense of because the other participants could be or maybe were talking about some quote or phrase from the article I wasn't present when it began. I recall just pausing at one point and wondering what was going on. Where could I chip in and how do I answer some of these questions posed at me which didn't seem very related to the quotes I had pulled out? Is this my singular experience? How did the other participants who were not involved in the planning of the event feel? Had their previous discussions prepared them differently for this event?

Looking back, a live-read-tweet-and-comment experience might appear to be a rather incompatible combination. But tweaking the event a little could help. For example, reading ahead of time would have helped me tremendously. Maybe preparing some questions and posting it ahead of time would also help guide the discussion so it would feel less kafkaesque, not in the menacing sense, but it would provide some structure to make it less confusing.

This is not to say I didn't learn or benefit from this experience. I did. AFTER the event, I was very eager to read the article in solitude, and with great care, dwelling on the points and reflecting on some of them considerably. The event heightened interest in more attentive reading. I wanted to interact with the ideas a bit more.

I was certainly glad Laura storified the tweets, and we could access them to reflect a little more later. The hashtag also continues to have a life of its own. For me, I'd continue to add to it when it's appropriate and would follow up on some of the suggested readings.


3. What Next?  

I'd participate in another #tjc15 event but I'd read ahead of time. I would highlight quotes for discussion and plan for it with some questions of my own, just so I could have the opportunity to raise ideas that I'd understand more completely in the context of the whole article. Not reading the article in advance means I was just skimming and jumping from a chunk of text to another, and this doesn't situate the meaning of the ideas in the entirety of the whole piece. (I'm grasping at words to try to convey my message!)

But definitely, I'm honored to have participated in this inaugural event and am open to discussing this reflective piece further.

Designing a Course Worth Learning 1

Selecting content? 

Over the next few weeks or months, my goal is to reflect on what and how I think as I design (big and small, d/Design) UNIV 291 in the roles of an instructional designer and instructor. There are many design decisions to consider. But there are a few BIG questions I must address. Uppermost in my mind is a question I borrow from David Perkins, a scholar I greatly admire for his ideas on thinking, teaching/learning, and clarity of thought.

With only 8 weeks for a summer online elective course, a big question I have is "What is worth learning?" [If there are things worth learning in a course of study, there are also some things we have to let go of, writes Perkins.]

A related question came in the form of an invitation to have a discussion with graduate students:

How do instructors "select content" for a course? 

Content means different things to teachers who adopt different pedagogical approaches. From the connectivist POV, content is external, constantly changing and interpreted (Larson & Lockee, 2014). In my course, we (my students and I) will build a network of knowledge resources together. One of the ways is to use a Diigo group bookmarking site.

Back to the main goal of my post, my response to the first question drives

• the core questions I will explore in the course with my students,
• what I will include in my course sessions (hence answering the second question), and
• the assessments I will design to gauge what is being learned, or not learned, how students are learning, etc. 

In his latest book, Future Wise, Perkins (2014) describes a scenario where a smart-alecky student raises his hand to ask, "Why do we need to know this?" Therein lies the counterpart (or counterpoint?) to Perkins' question of what's worth learning. Indeed, as instructors, we hope to avert the occurrence of such instances, albeit astute.

As I ponder this key question (what's worth learning), I thought about the more than two decades of formal schooling I've had and what of it has remained in my life.

1. Most of the academic content I've learned are stored in long-term memory. What counts as active knowledge are what I use daily -- some theories, strategies and heuristics I may refer to for design thinking and problem solving.

2. What has lingered over the years and used persistently are skills of reading, writing, thinking (problem-solving, metacognition), communicating, and relating to people.

3. The early years of learning more than one language and culture and of avid reading and journaling have been augmented by specialized learning in my later years of formal schooling. These practices have morphed into and assumed 21st century forms -- blogging and e-reading extend what I learned from my early years. These practices are a result of my metacognitive awareness and responses.

4. In graduate school, certain values and attitudes were reinforced; discipline, parsimony in writing and precision of thought. In the presence of my mentors, I absorbed via osmosis and observation abstract concepts such as their approach to research and teaching. To this day, what they taught and modeled for me are ideas I still implement in my life -- the knowledge and practice of research, scholarly writing, mentoring, teaching, and service.

All these have remained. How then do these disparate thoughts help me in crafting a course that is worth learning? Here are some preliminary thoughts based on my pedagogical approach to teaching and learning:

• How will I frame the course topic(s) so that it is generative and makes as many connections as possible to what matters in learners' lives?

• As a thinking-centered course, what context(s) will I set the course in to help them develop understanding of visible thinking and visible learning? Learning doesn't take place in a vacuum (Perkins, 2009).

• What do I want learners to understand when they finish the course? What do I want learners to get better at doing? What will learners construct an understanding of? (This has been somewhat articulated in my syllabus 1.0.)

• How will they actively explore, inquire, argue, and construct their understanding of the topic?

• What topics will the learners build a network of external knowledge sources on?

Let's see how these macro-level questions will guide me further in course design.

Meanwhile, at the micro design level, I've been working on the course site header and trying to pick the best theme, course site layout, and navigation for the site.

Do you think the header works? Till the next post.

Homepage of UNIV291 summer 2015 course

The Making of a Course Trailer

The course trailer is up on YouTube. Although it runs for less than 2 minutes, it entails a tremendous amount of work. Many people chipped in to help out given the tight time-frame we had to churn it out. To them I owe a debt of gratitude. Their names were not mentioned in the credits and I would like to use this space to express my appreciation to them.

Thank you, in no particular order, Alice Westerberg, Suzie Fairman, Molly Ransone, Emma Gauthier, Aditi Jain and Arianna DeCastro (both the actresses), Marcus Messner (and his students), Alana Robinson, Mr. Hunt, the cyclist who rode around the block near Lamplighter Roastery, Lamplighter Roastery for the loan of a Sharpie, Dan Silverman who earlier consented to do a voiceover, and last but not least, Max Schlickenmeyer, the videographer, concept designer, and all the roles he had to juggle to rush this trailer out. I hope this didn't ruin his Valentine's Day.

This is a quick recap of what we did to create this video. In time to come, this documentation might provide insight for future revisions.


1. Concept Design

After showing Max, my new media specialist colleague, a copy of my draft syllabus, we strove to craft a script. Since this course is not a content-based course and centers on the abstract topic of thinking, it was a challenge to consider how best to make thinking come alive.

Max came up with the concept to put thought bubbles above the actresses' heads. It was ingenious! Note, if thinking were that simple in real life, we would have less misunderstanding and better communication! But that was the best way in a video to represent thinking visually -- something which cannot be seen.

Hence, and back to the importance of making thinking visible. Visible thinking helps US to clarify and manage our own thinking; it helps OTHERS to become more aware of what we are thinking. It thus improves thinking and leads to deeper learning.

I'm an advocate for getting ideas out of our head and into some form of external representation to facilitate positive action. I'm also an avid learner of all kinds of strategies that can help individuals and groups communicate their thoughts -- using visuals (text and images), movement, sound, and learning as many languages as you can manage. However, unless you are ready to embrace certain dispositions towards thinking, the practice of visible thinking will come slower to you. I'll elaborate on this in my course. It will be an 8-week elective course for undergraduates offered this June. The course site is being developed, but I hope to get it up soon.


*February 18, 2015: There was also location scouting, which I'd earlier neglected to include. We checked out Anderson Gallery but settled on the VMFA.


2. Scripting and Storyboarding

Since we can't see each other's thoughts, Molly encouraged us to use a two-column table to script our thoughts. As I started writing, Max started to draft the storyboard. Even so, these have to be translated into moving images and edited. The first video clip that came out wasn't the final cut version. Why? Two persons can look at the same script and interpret it differently. And there is only so much that moving images can adequately describe a chunk of written text on thinking. Ever wonder how marvelous movies are in condensing a book into a two-hour film? I am more in awe of such feats now. Think of Austen's Pride and Prejudice directed by Joe Wright.


3. Animation of Still Images (and Photography)

Script, storyboard, character development, animation ...

I don't know how Max did it but all I did was help sketch out some characters and he animated them all -- characters and thought bubbles. He could sketch them all himself, much more elegantly; I'm guessing he entertained my efforts because he was too busy. Incorporating my sketches did provide me with some ownership of the video production process and product.


4. Videography (The Shoots) and Acting

VMFA shoot

Lest I forget, the actresses are amateurs who did us a huge favor. In the live shoot at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, I was glad when Molly came along, to hold the equipment (reflector and camera) and at times, to help direct the actresses on how to act.


5. Audio Recording 

Although there is minimal audio in the trailer, there was a part where I did a voiceover to briefly introduce the course. That was completed in our Jazzmosphere recording studio with Emma and Max's help.


6. Evaluation and Feedback for Editing

Several pairs of eyes reviewed it so we could fine-tune it further, including Aditi (who looked at it from the perspective of a student).

Towards the end, we wanted to give greater prominence to the student "who had taken my course" by zooming in on her notes. We weren't able to do that, unfortunately, due to time and weather constraints. We weren't able to reshoot because of poor weather today; inserting it into a scene with a notebook didn't help much either. So, here are the notes by that 'thought-full' student in all its clarity:

Thought-FULL student's notes

PDF version

I once worked in a multimedia company in Singapore in a creative team. This episode reminded me of those days, one of the best jobs I've had in my life, except that I worked in a highly specialized team as an instructional designer/content writer with a programmer, animator, illustrator, project manager, graphic designer and more. Despite this previous experience, there was still something to learn from working with Max and associates. Looking at him shoot POV (Point of View) shots reminded me about empathy in crafting instruction. Max had also invited a cyclist to ride around the block to make the scene less static. All these, and more I cannot detail fully, offered me a glimpse of the workings of an artistic and creative mind. All these learning opportunities filled my mind to overflowing last week, and in a good way!

I'm tired but thankful we made the deadline and probably set a record for producing a course trailer in 5 days, from concept to development. Of course, there is always room for improvement. For me, I was glad when our student actresses enjoyed the shooting process and one of them thanked me for bringing her on this learning adventure. Quite often, it's not about the final product, but the process. I feel privileged to be in a position to add some value to someone's life.

Blogging is Not a To-Do List Item

Sometimes we don't know how good we have it until it is gone. The Blizzard of 2015 in New York sent some cross-continental friends whatsapp-ing me two days ago to check if I was out of harm's way. Some of them think I'm still in New York state. It brought a smile to my face and tears to my eyes. My dad used to worry about things like these. It is a blessing to be a child of someone. To have someone worry about you; enough to call and wonder if you are safe in a ghastly snowstorm. What an honor and privilege.

Today, serendipitously or via divine intervention, in a parallel sense, I had some breakthrough thinking about blogging which arrested my previous perception of blogging as an item on my weekly to-do list. I stumbled upon a Twitter chat session led by Vicki Davis, @coolcatteacher, and moderated by Shelley Burgess, @burgess_shelley. I had followed Vicki on Twitter just a few days ago. 

This morning as I was checking the weather outlook on my smartphone, I looked at my Twitter Following stream and a surge of tweets were showing up under the hashtag, #satchatwc. What caught my eye was Vicki's tweet: 

A1: A well-rounded writer is experienced with many tools & selects the best one for the creative task at hand. #satchatwc
— Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) January 31, 2015

Riveted, I kept on reading the tweets surfacing at rapid-fire pace on the small screen.

A1: IMHO, Ss must learn to write electronically if they are going to be prepared for the world outside of the classroom. #satchatwc
— Andi McNair (@mcnairan3) January 31, 2015

A1: 21st century learning is all about social contribution, authenticity,voice & relevancy. That is far beyond paper and pencil. #satchatwc
— Sanee Bell (@SaneeBell) January 31, 2015

"@MitchChampagne: Let your students blog & write 4 the world. " pic.twitter.com/vNGLyfxLMK" #edcampiowa
— Tim Hadley (@MrHadleyHistory) January 31, 2015

@shirky17 Absolutely- Students must be TRANSLITERATE - literate in multiple media! #satchatwc
— Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) January 31, 2015

A1 All writing is thinking. Electronic writing is the pathway toward 21st century socially interactive thinking. #satchatwc
— Steve Wyborney (@SteveWyborney) January 31, 2015

And the tweets streamed on for a considerable period of time. You can read the entire tweet collection via Storify. I was blown away by what these teachers were sharing about "Reinventing Writing," a theme based on a book written by Vicki Davis.

I didn't stay till the end but these teachers' tweets inspired me to rethink my writing and blogging habits. Don't get me wrong, I have loved writing since I was a child. I have many personal blogs which I used as means to communicate with my close friends in other continents. I know my blog is my space to share some of my thoughts. But like the blind man Bartimaeus, I felt like the scales had fallen off my eyes today. This tweet by Vicki made me realized how privileged I am to have a space to blog. Correction, many spaces to blog:

A1: A student without a blog is a student without a voice. #satchatwc
— Vicki Davis (@coolcatteacher) January 31, 2015

I can blog on Blogger, WordPress, Rampages, Tumblr, anywhere, without restriction. Yet, I don't write as regularly as I used to -- I journaled extensively when I was a child and when I was a college student. I had resisted participating in Curious Creative's 28-day writing challenge to write for 28 minutes a day (nah, I can't write a post in 28 minutes).

Vicki and the #satchatwc educators highlighted a few things to me. As Greg Miller (a principal) says, "At heart, we are still teachers." Blogging is a way for me to not only model consistent reflective thinking but to also S-T-R-E-T-C-H my thinking. If I want my student to think deeply and clearly, I need to be doing that regularly for authenticity. Likewise, I want my students to know that my asking them to blog is not a burdensome chore. It is an honor to be given an opportunity to voice our thoughts. Never forget that. Reading some of our student blogposts on Rampages.us confirmed that. I was moved each time by the blogposts I had selected to  read -- example 1 example 2 example 3. If they only knew that their emotional labor (and invisible labor) was noted by someone, how encouraged they would be. We need to work at providing comments to these students' blogposts. (Some strategy needs to be crafted). I don't think these students are getting enough feedback.

Maybe we don't have time to blog or comment because of our hectic schedules. For me, I am going to make it a habit to write something more than once a week. I who have it so good -- access to so many resources and the freedom to voice my thoughts. Let me not hesitate to let my voice ring out more often for socially interactive thinking (citing Steve Wyborney)!

Olé Days 2 & 3

Days 2 and 3 of OLE offered participants more new ideas to refresh pedagogical perspectives and work on their course sites.

1. Moving Images (In both sense of the word "moving")

Collage of video stills from course trailers of 4 VCU professors

Molly Ransome shared with the participants course trailers of Ryan Cales, Jason Coats, Dianne Jennings,  Gardner Campbell and a few other instructors. The trailers were each fabulous in their own ways. Gardner's trailer is a self-made one that made us chuckle (and I'm not saying this because he is the Vice Provost of the Office of Learning Innovation and Student Success where I work). Gardner shows us that anyone can make a video clip if in possession of a smartphone. His trailer is whimsically and distinctively HIM; I hear his voice (literally, figuratively). The session inspired one participant to make one of her own, right away, i.e. after class, that day. Holly Buchanan, I salute you!



Well done, Holly, Molly and Team Creative at ALT Lab! If I were a student in any of these cited courses, these trailers will help me feel less isolated from a community of online learners who I don't get to see -- unless someone posts a message or communicates in some way. I'd love to hear, see and connect a face to my online instructor from the very beginning of my learning experience. It sets the right tone.


2. Practice Makes Perfect ...

... is indeed a truism. I spoke for 20 minutes (thereabouts) four times on the same topic, at 4 different stations/tables, for our Digital Petting Zoo session. By the end of the fourth session, I was cruising. Any reservations I had -- about how to talk to new bloggers about blogging for connected learning in 20 minutes without any projector or display surfaces -- were banished. I used a combination of devices and apps -- participants had their laptops; I emailed or tweeted a shared document; I wrote short URLs on a piece of paper (which didn't seem to work very well)... But you learn to adapt quickly.

We had great conversations at each table. I've been thinking if 20 minutes is long enough, including time for moving to different tables. I do like keeping things concise though!

Image of whiteboard writing surface, and Jon Becker, Director of VCU ALT Lab. 

3. An Enthusiastic Learning Community

We had two OLE cohorts -- one gathered at Monroe Park Campus and one at MCV Campus, where I was at. On two occasions, we were connected via video conferencing. My reflections are based on my interactions with the MCV cohort participants alone, who were minds-on and hands-on with their learning. They were so engrossed in their discussions that food was an afterthought on Day 3.

VCU School of Nursing's Doctoral Nursing Program faculty

Thank you again for the delightful discussions. See you at Agora or the e-highway soon!

Olé, Olé, Olé

According to Wikipedia (Oops! The mention of this word might start a friendly argument!), the word "olé" might refer to several things, including a football chant, with the star footballer's name added to the end. In my case, I refer to both a rah-rah cheer (Go! VCU OLE!) and a program the ALT Lab is running.

Today was Day 1 of the Institute and has been a pretty intense time with lots of ideas presented to participants. We are all going to spend some time tonight doing HW, yup, Home Work! So this is going to be a short post. I will share 3 things that stood out for me today:

1. Example of an engaging learning experience that makes students think deeply. 

Leaf from a shrub? Spicebush?

I took some pictures of leaves in the setting sun and uploaded one of them to a course site, Field Botany. (FYI, I'm a little confused as I'm unsure if the leaves were those of a tree or shrub since I will admit I rushed through this exercise to get to other OLE prep for tomorrow. I invite you to click on the course site and explore it yourself.) This is a well-crafted, interactive and engaging learning experience. It allows the learner to use various thinking skills to learn about trees/leaves -- observation, comparison, making connections, forming conclusions, reasoning ... Yes, I am a fan of learning via thinking and intellectual development.

2. Video-conferencing presents challenges and has yet to live up to its promise. 
My colleague, Enoch Hale, gave a presentation that was shared with another group of OLE participants meeting on the Monroe Park campus via videoconferencing. Despite advanced testing and preparation to use the software, some challenges still arose. Audaciously, I'll say that no current videoconferencing hardware and software are able to capture the in-person experience and transmit that to another location in a manner many of us desire.

The audio capability of the software was not optimum today. In both rooms where human conversation had taken place at a normal decibel level, the presenter was tethered to the console/microphone because moving any distance away led to participant feedback about inaudibility. Also, for a presentation where there were a number of starts and stops for participant discussions, it was difficult for my colleague to try to catch the attention of participants on the other campus via video when he wanted to start or stop the activity. Initially, I had to text another colleague to get him to relay the presenter's messages to the facilitator on the other campus. I attribute the challenges to both human and nonhuman factors. However, I believe the poor audio capability of the hardware/software made things more difficult for the presenter to control the discussion starts and stops. My verdict: we need more sophisticated video conferencing hardware and software.

3. What if...
I wonder if we could have participants get up and move around a bit more to actively participate in the experience. Although they were encouraged to take notes on the shared Google Doc, I wish the room had more writing/doodling surfaces -- whiteboards, touch screen monitors, and space to encourage learners to be more active in documenting their learning. (Yes, there are understandably facility constraints.) I was glad to see a few learners taking pictures and sharing the camaraderie on Twitter. Well, tomorrow is another day of possibilities. 

Online Icebreaker: Songs My Mother Taught Me

[Note: This post began as a draft in June 2014 after I heard this tune on a plane. Video description: Antonin Dvorak's musical composition, Songs My Mother Taught Me, performed by Itzhak Perlman]

Different metaphors have been used to describe the learning process; learning is like a game, a conversation, combustion system, an ecosystem ... What if learning is like music-making or an inspiration of song? This idea came about when I heard Joshua Bell and Yo-Yo Ma play Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Taught Me." How about using this as an online icebreaker (warm-up activity)?

We could get a feel of students' expectations by asking them to create a playlist of:

Songs I Wish My Teacher Taught Me.

OR, get to know the students a bit better by asking them to come up with a playlist of ...

Songs My Mom / Dad / Teacher / Mentor / Community / XXX (Fill in the blank!) Taught Me.

[This activity can also be used at the end of a Unit to get a big idea of what students have learned.]

To illustrate, here's my current list of Songs My Mother Taught Me:

#1. A Hard Day's Night. (Beatles). Work hard.

#2. Change. (Carrie Underwood). You can make a difference.

#3. How You Live (Turn Up the Music). (Point of Grace). Don't spend your life looking back.

#4. Try. (Colbie Caillat). Accept yourself for who you are.


What about you? What are some songs you learned from your mom, dad, teacher, BFF, etc?

Assessing Student Learning in Online Education Part 1

Assessment types.

Besides learning engagement, assessing student learning is one of the top concerns (top 3?) of teachers. This burden is no less lighter for online teachers. Much as teachers might like to banish this bane of teaching from their jobs, assessment (evaluation, retention, accreditation, and all related concerns) won't go away because "measuring" learning and giving a score/grade to course completion is a deeply embedded element of the institutional culture of formal education. How to give a grade meaningfully is a priority of mine.

Recently, the role of rubrics in online learning assessment was (tangentially?) touched on at a meeting. This comment led me to a series of conversations with folks around me. They each offered unique perspectives but I was left unsatisfied due to no fault of theirs. I wondered if I had caught up with the current wave of discourse about assessment in online learning. This blogpost is part of my ongoing efforts to learn more about the latest in online assessment [As a mini literature review, it's somewhat long, sorry!].

1. There are few empirical studies about assessment in online learning. Most studies in online education have focused on course design, technology implementation and learning outcomes between different modes of instruction, i.e. degree of hybridity/blend, F2F, fully online (Cheng, Jordan, Schallert & D-Team, 2013).


2. The nature of online learning has influenced the adoption of grading rubrics:

• Rubrics have been used to provide explicit instructions and clear communication essential for efficient and effective learning across space and time. Proponents of rubric-use argue that rubrics provided by the online teacher serve as a means of explicit guidance to learners as descriptors of the level of performance expected of them. 
• Rubric grading is a legacy of traditional face-to-face instruction. Some teachers who are new to online teaching may not be aware that a new approach to teaching is required in the new and different learning environment. OR, they may find assessing online  learning formidable with the distance and lack of immediacy in interaction. How they assess traditionally is thus transferred over to their online teaching experience.

3. Online teachers frequently use asynchronous forum discussions as a way to "provide a sense of connection among participants" (Dennen, 2008). 

In the online learning environment, no one knows if a student is present unless s/he communicates in some way, through text, image, sound or video. Historically, many teachers have relied on rubrics to assess learning participation and if forum discussions have enhanced learning. Research on asynchronous online discussions has not matched the popularity of this online assessment practice (Cheng et al, 2013).

4. Writing a good set of rubrics is a challenge. What are they anyway? To quote Susan Brookhart, (2013, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development website & book):

The genius of rubrics is that they are descriptive and not evaluative. Of course, rubrics can be used to evaluate, but the operating principle is you match the performance to the description rather than "judge" it. Thus rubrics are as good or bad as the criteria selected and the descriptions of the levels of performance under each. Effective rubrics have appropriate criteria and well-written descriptions of performance. 

Brookhart's book provides an introduction to different types of rubrics a teacher may consider using.

Types of rubrics (Brookhart, 2013).

She writes:

When the intended learning outcomes are best indicated by performances—things students would do, make, say, or write—then rubrics are the best way to assess them... Except in unusual cases, any one performance is just a sample of all the possible performances that would indicate an intended learning outcome. 

Whether or not to use rubrics in an online course depends on a few factors:

• The purpose of the assessment. What do we want to assess? What is it about the learning experience we value? The process of learning? Learning products? Both? The sum of the learning experience or parts of it?
• Formative and/or summative assessment 
• Individual and/or group assessment

Although teachers may use rubrics to assess both the learning process (development / emergence of some mental schema [cognition]) and the final product (written reflections) of asynchronous discussions, it is difficult to develop a robust rubric that fully measures (or captures) how students read, write and engage in online discussions.


5. The use of grading rubrics in assessing online discussions is problematic. 

Rubrics, more often than not, are used to grade individual-based expressions or reproductions of knowledge rather than learning (Cheng et al, 2013). Rubrics that grade collaborative work remain a challenge to develop. Even without rubrics, collaborative learning by itself is a complicated endeavor to design and assess (Swan et al, 2006).

Dennen (2008) who has done research on "productive lurking" (An eye-opening concept for me!) argues that learning is an invisible practice, and non-visible learning activities such as lurking can actually be engaging and a learning developmental stage for some students. As they watch how other students learn, they move towards visible learning themselves (Hint of Lave & Wenger's (1991) Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice? LPP in COP). Teachers are often more likely to assess learners on the written aspect (Dennen, 2008) and not so much on their reading and engagement (while lurking). What evidence might online teachers be looking for?

Moreover, frequency counts (indicative of participation, but not always of learning), content and quality analysis of postings are time-consuming work for teachers, especially those teaching large courses. When students are rewarded a grade for creating a certain number of postings, what sort of message are we sending students? Is low-visibility work such as reading and reflecting less important?

With the increasing use of social media such as blogs and Twitter chats for communication and discussion, blog rubrics have been created by some teachers to motivate students to create blog postings. Some examples: one two three.

My concern about some blog grading rubrics are that they are too task-specific and sometimes, guide students to look for details that are often not what matters most in learning. Not to mention that grading blog postings by the teacher alone is tedious work. When I was a TA in graduate school, I created a spreadsheet to help the instructor keep track of postings so that she could grade them. It was for a class of not more than 20 students who were divided into small groups to ensure they would comment on each other's posts. What challenges would a course with 800 students present if the teacher plans to grade them for continuous feedback? How many teachers have the privilege of TA help?


6. How can we assess online discussions more holistically?

Dennen (2008, p. 215) suggests using three more analytic methods -- besides participation measures and content analysis -- to examine online discussions. Note: Dennen examines methods for the assessment and research of online discussions for indication of learning. I am extending her ideas on methods of discussion analysis to include an examination of networked, connected online conversations in these post web 2.0 days:

• structural analysis (refers to "structure" of discussion/conversation; who talks to whom, who has power, includes use of social network analytic method; helpful in noting dynamics of collaborative work; used by itself, this method will not provide teachers with a complete picture of learning)
• microethnography (as the name suggests, it's likened to ethnographic studies; conversations are explored in their contexts; surveys/polls, interviews, and analysis of digital footprints)
• dialogue analysis (examine interrelatedness of messages and ideas in a dialogue; can be interpretive)

I could see all three analytic methods of online conversations as being beneficial to online teachers, Including an analysis and hence awareness of the social network(s) of learners in their online courses would give teachers a more complete picture of the complexity of learning in their online course communities. Lin and Lai (2013) conducted an intriguing study that combined a traditional online formative quiz with social network awareness. Knowledge of their peers' social network position, social distance, and willingness to help others relative to the student's social network position promoted learning achievement.

Nonetheless, I understand that teachers are busy people. They do not have to use all three methods, nor try them on a large scale (e.g. with 800 students) for a start, unless they are planning to do research on their online courses. Using a team-based approach to online teaching and/or research might mitigate some of the issues that come with having insufficient time to do "so much."

7. If not rubrics, or besides rubrics, how else do we know if learning has taken place in an online environment? 

How do we communicate explicit expectations of learning that matters? Expectations of interaction, quality and performance to learners so that student projects do not suffer from a lack of effort or quality? Particularly if we incorporate peer assessment into online learning? What if students  are new to online learning or new to college?

I've been mulling over these questions. My current probably not-very-original thinking is this:

It's time to move beyond using only rubrics to assess (or grade) online discussion boards in the hopes that students would make postings to indicate engagement. Also, by themselves, online discussion boards with rubrics thrown in are inadequate at assessing student learning.

Recent ideas for alternative assessment practices include the following:

• Courageous Conversation: Formative Assessment and Grading (Andrew Miller)
• Learning Contracts (Dave Cormier)
• Contract Grading (Cathy Davidson)
• How to crowdsource grading (Cathy Davidson, read the comments too)

[If you are aware of more alternative assessment practices, please share them with me?]

As a grad student, I've written one learning contract, but the teacher did not follow up on it at the end of the course. So, teachers/instructors/professors, whatever you have contracted (a two-way learning effort) with your student to complete, it is only meaningful learning if there is some feedback provided on what you've asked your students to do -- whether the feedback be from a machine, teacher, student, or member of the public (this is not a guaranteed response though).

With the move towards personalized learning and learner-centered instruction, students are given more opportunities to self-assess and monitor their own learning. However, in the institutional culture of programmatic education and degree completion of studies, student learning assessment is still a HUGE priority in faculty professional development when teachers talk about preparing to teach online.

This blogpost is an expression of my preliminary thoughts on the topic. More reading/conversation is needed and ideas will evolve as I read and synthesize more information.

Articles/Books I read to synthesize ideas:

Labels of Authentic Assessment Types in the first image:
What are some types of assessment? (Jul 15, 2008). Edutopia Blogpost. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/assessment-guide-description 

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Cheng, A. C., Jordan, M. E., & Schallert, D. L. (2013). Reconsidering assessment in online/hybrid courses: Knowing versus learning. Computers & Education, 68, 51-59.

Dennen, V. P. (2008). Looking for evidence of learning: Assessment and analysis methods for online discourse. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(2), 205-219.

Lin, J. W., & Lai, Y. C. (2013). Online formative assessments with social network awareness. Computers & Education, 66, 40-53.

Swan, K., Shen, J., & Hiltz, S. R. (2006). Assessment and collaboration in online learning. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 10(1), 45-62.

Online Teaching and "Body Language"

Image description: A quotation by Jenifer Ringer,
"Terry taught ballet as if it were very important and precious."

Vignette 1:

"Terry taught ballet as if it were very important and precious." - Jenifer Ringer, Dancing Through It: My Journey in the Ballet. 

Image Description: Feet clad in ballet
shoes standing on pointe position

A line in a book given to me during the early days of losing my parents; supposedly the heroine's victory over her struggles would inspire me. A short sentence fraught with meaning and implications. I especially love the second half of the sentence. The words swirled with the other info bytes in my mind from last week's learning.

[Context: Jenifer Ringer was a professional ballerina. In her memoir, she wrote that she found ballet boring until she met Terry Shields who instilled in her the important virtue of discipline combined with high standards in dancing (2014, p. 12). ]


Vignette 2:

Online Teaching 101. A graduate seminar discussion. On the projector screen were these words, "effective face-to-face teaching." I asked students to explore this phrase and make their thoughts and observations visible through words, questions and metaphors.

Working in pairs, one graduate student raised a question about the potential influence of a teacher's body language on student learning outcomes.

"Are you impressed?" (by their question).

"Yes!"


The mashup:

A weekend and four days later.

Ringer's quote and the students' question led me to think about the planning of my potential summer 2015 online course more delicately. In an online course, many students may not literally "see" an online teacher-facilitator and/or a fellow student's body language.

To be honest, what does body language look like online? Or better, how is it represented online?

First, let's be clear about what "body language" means:

Body Language "refers to various forms of nonverbal communication, wherein a person may reveal clues as to some unspoken intention or feeling through their physical behavior. These behaviors include, but are not limited to: facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space." (Wikipedia) 

1. Does body language matter online? 
2. If so, how does the teacher/student display body language? 
3. What is/are the difference(s)?...

I have many questions. On top of my abundance of questions on participatory networked learning: contract grading (Cathy Davidson), avoiding resistance to contract grading, crowdsourcing grading, peer evaluation, constantly negotiated syllabus... My head is hurting.

Since online learning is mediated by communication technology - text, image (still and moving),  sound, synchronous and asynchronous communication, conveying to my online students how important and precious the subject matter is --to me-- requires meticulous design.

To answer Q2 first, the usual suspects in the technology realm for representing "voice" and "presence" are:

• Real-time webconferencing
• Biographies with visuals
• Podcasts 
• Conversational tone of text communications 

I've read blogposts by some online participants condemning real-time conferencing, in particular when a panel of facilitators are not prepared. Awkward silence pervades when panelists don't know when it is their turn to speak and students are left wondering how to respond to silence. We live in a world where quick wit is prized and silence/time to think is punished. To answer Q1, yes, it matters, especially if you are going to create videoclips and simulations of real-time teaching where your nonverbal communication cues are going to be captured.

[Note, Nov. 15, 2014: It's not the technology alone that is going to do the job; it is how you use the technology to help you express your intents and motives.]

Yet, Ringer's quote demanded more. I'd not just have to choose an appropriate technology but also, be mindful of all the elements of a course that would gel together to convey my teaching attitude: from frequency of contact with my students, to type of learning activities (Ringer got the chance to participate in real stage productions where her learning mattered), to even how my course site looks. Students care about the values teachers are imparting, like Ringer. Every detail of the course would convey if I'm fearlessly passionate about the topic. It's simultaneously exhausting and rewarding to design and teach a course.

As to Q3, is there a difference between how a teacher and a student conveys her intentions in real-time and virtual spaces? This is a difficult one.

Ideally, we are all human beings and regardless of our status, there should be no difference; we ought to treat each other with respect and dignity. But teachers are held to a higher standard as the role model and facilitator. Granted, Freire wrote that we are all teachers, at some point, and we learn from each other. This answers Q3 theoretically. But what happens often in practice?  Sometimes, we forget to prepare in advance for the learner who is legally blind or deaf or has a physical disability which holds back his/her participation in the course. We forget that that blinking multiple-images gif might not be read by the screen reader too well. And that automatic captioning by Google is hardly any captioning at all unless we are all wonderful voice talents and videographers. We don't know that sometimes a blind student might need more than one type of screen reader to access information on the web. Because we have yet to encounter a person with such challenges. Yes, teachers are held to a higher standard. We have to be vigilant of different learners with different needs and seek to make them feel welcome.

A somewhat cliched quote I'll include to end this post, but nonetheless one I often think about in teaching and relating to people:

Image Description: A quotation by Theodore Roosevelt,
"No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care."

My ex-students had indicated this to me over and over again in my life. Thanks, folks, for what you taught me.