Designing a Course Worth Learning 3: Course Video Make

Thinking and talking about the course has turned into action. Yes, UNIV 291 has begun. I did not create a navigation or orientation video because I had provided a lot of instructions on the website. The students didn't seem to be lost. They knew where to start. I had a Get Started button, to be sure.

Most of their questions centered around Learning Activity terms we use in Connected Learning. Were they doing things "right" and questions about social media. Why aren't my tweets showing up? There was anxiety and excitement at blasting off, but I wanted them to feel they belonged to a community right away. So I launched the site, let them navigate the course site a bit and then posted a video to let them know I'm present and available; always listening and responding. I also wanted to emphasize the affordances of the open web, knowing most of them were new to Twitter and were not familiar with Connected Learning.

The video took me considerable time to produce. The following are the tools I used and the production process:

1. PRE-PROD: I thought of what I wanted to say and wrote it out using MS Word. It would come in handy for close-captioning in YouTube later. 
2. I didn't read off the script. It was a guide so that I wouldn't have too many "Ums and Ahs." 
3. PROD: I created the raw videos in Quicktime Player on my iMac. There is an option for Movie recording. I saved both as MOV files. I had gone much longer than I intended to be - about 7 minutes. I split the first file and created another ending movie.  
4. I imported them into WeVideo for editing. [Note: I tried using iMovie but it didn't have the editing timeline I prefer to use but this option is available in WeVideo.] I have a paid account that allows me to have more storage space and editing features in WeVideo. The app didn't work too well with my older Windows machine. It worked better (without crashing) on my newer XP touchscreen laptop. (Just something to note.) In WeVideo, I clipped the videos and merged them with transitions, title and ending slides, audio and annotations.
5. I then published the final movie in WeVideo and YouTube (so that I could close caption it). 
6. POST-PROD: Close captioning was completed rather efficiently with a script in YouTube. 

I was reasonably pleased with the final outcome and what I could do in WeVideo. The whole video took longer than I intended to spend time on because I had not estimated how long my initial script would take. Mostly, it's also in the little details -- what font to use, what music, what transitions, etc. Let me know if you have any questions about creating your own course videos. It's highly doable these days with the available web technologies.

With more time, I would have captured the process with a software, but I'm short of time at the moment. Something to revisit later.
    

This is How I Tweet and Chirp

I use Twitter as part of my work and for professional development. I created an account in 2007 but wasn't actively participating in the web until ALT Lab came along. I have ways to go but there are several things I've learned from using Twitter actively since October 2014. I've summarized and illustrated them as 7 big ideas thus far.

1. I get the latest information from my Tweeps/Twends? (Twitter People/Twitter Friends)
2. My Twends tutor me when I need some help.
3. I reflect and wonder out loud on Twitter.
4. Let's not forget the social aspect. Many of my Twends are warm and helpful.
5. It's not all serious stuff for me. Twitter brightens up a dull day with its jokes and funny tweets....
6. And clever ideas abound.
7. I don't just wonder out loud. I reflect and share my written thoughts on Twitter.

But the biggest takeaway for me is that Twitter is all about participation. The more you participate in activities and connect with others, the more you will get out of it and the more you want to be in a position to give back to others for being so giving to you. So participate, connect, share and give back. Be authentic and courageous. Loosen up a bit and have fun!

1. I get the latest information from my Tweeps/Twends? (Twitter People/Twitter Friends)

For example, I'm interested in Reggio-inspired Visible Thinking and what Project Zero (at Harvard) is up to. I want to know the latest professional development opportunities and conferences they offer.

I didn't think I'd see this show up on Twitter but it did - Thinking Routines!

What are #Thinking Routines? This video explains what they are & how to use them: http://t.co/QkTOv7CkPj @contemplatethis #PZATL #edchat

— Project Zero (@ProjectZeroHGSE) May 8, 2015

Slow down to understand complexities by Shari Tishman http://t.co/m2UrSQs9dk #PZATL

— Ilse Ortega (@ilseort) May 9, 2015

Slowly as more thought leaders sign up on Twitter, I am able to get the latest information about their recent presentations and writings via Twitter. As a boundary crosser, my interests span education, instructional design, visible thinking, inclusive learning design, arts, French, leadership and creativity. Having been a teacher for many years of my life, at heart, I still see myself very much as a teacher. I participate in Twitter chats like the #satchatwc, #UDLchat, and any that I sometimes stumble across that interests me.

Our very own ALT Lab #TJC15 (Twitter Journal Club, run by @googleguacamole) chat is one I very much enjoy. Although I don't do research as much as I used to, I miss reading about the latest research in education. Twitter chats meet my need for shared community and online engagement beyond the posting of solitary tweets.

I even got the chance to contribute to a radio play and read a few lines. Talk about fun!

Keep your ears open for the premiere of the #rhizo15 Radio Play: Collaboratively Written/Collaboratively Performed pic.twitter.com/1X3uCsDk2B

— KevinHodgson (@dogtrax) April 25, 2015

There are opportunities to write articles. I was honored to be invited to write a blogpost by a Twitter friend, Maha Bali who runs EdConteXts with a group of colleagues.

Tweets that show me being invited to blog for an webzine. 

Sometimes, professional development ideas for and with faculty arise out of unplanned spontaneous tweets. I recall posting a tweet about my training at Sabot and included the hashtag for my summer course. Suddenly, a conversation developed about crafting a faculty version of the course. 

Tweets that show a conversation developing around an idea for professional development

2. My Twends tutor me when I need some help. 

I struggle to learn French at my grand old age, but I have a couple of Twends (Nadia, and Tania Sheko) who will jump in to help me. (I do curate a vast amount of resources but nothing beats a live tutor.)

Tweets that show a Twitter friend helping me with my French

There are too many people to mention who have taught me and tutored me (see blogpost on Hypothes.is which was introduced to me by Greg McVerry). Pardon me if I fail to mention all of you in this blogpost. All my Twends from #rhizo15, #et4online, #satchatwc, #udlchat, folks from #a11y where I've been lurking... Thank you from the depths of my heart!

3. I reflect and wonder out loud on Twitter. 

Sometimes, someone will pick up my idea, join me in an extended conversation and provide fresh perspectives and resources on the idea.

@yinbk @mlshelden interesting idea. Some would say they enable but not guarantee wider collaboration. Why exclusive?

— Simon Warren (@worried_teacher) April 23, 2015

Even when I couldn't present at a conference, I received some feedback about my presentation via Twitter.

Tweets that show feedback for a presentation I was unable to be present in person

4. Let's not forget the social aspect. Many of my Twends are warm and helpful. 

After all, Twitter is part of social media.

Tweets that show casual conversations with Twitter friends

You get to connect with new and old friends.

Tweets that show I met a fellow alumnus from Syracuse University

5. It's not all serious stuff for me. Twitter brightens up a dull day with its jokes and funny tweets....

Ryan McHenry had a great sense of humor. The"@RyanGosling Won’t Eat His Cereal" guy couldn't ask for a better tribute http://t.co/4DZqmAzcLH

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) May 5, 2015

6. And clever ideas abound. 

Oh, Those Clever Librarians and Their #Bookface http://t.co/qB2l1NNAZB @pkittle #clmooc

— Joe Dillon (@onewheeljoe) May 2, 2015

Are you using cinemagraphs in #elearning? http://t.co/3SvKVS7DKO #elhchallenge #edtech pic.twitter.com/EdTsvGmwwR

— Melissa Milloway (@MelMilloway) May 1, 2015

@yinbk You're welcome. I did make some too! Not too difficult http://t.co/sU7aDDIWiz

— Melissa Milloway (@MelMilloway) May 8, 2015

7. I don't just wonder out loud. I reflect and share my written thoughts on Twitter. 

I blog and share reflections of my work on Twitter. This doesn't get me much feedback but I see that sometimes, some tweeted blogposts get more hits than blogposts that I don't disseminate via Twitter.

I can ramble on. This is my first draft and I'll likely revise it a bit. It's amazing how much I have learned from Twitter and am learning to give back to my Twends. Merci all!

Collaborative Learning Activity: Poetry Writing

We sat around a table with interesting objects we had brought from home. A community of poet wannabes. Or poetry machines, Randy Marshall our chief instigator cheekily called us. He led us to write poems inspired by the stories we shared about the items. A good activity that I could use one day with my students, if Randy doesn't mind.

Poetry writing sharpens our minds and writing. I like the opportunity it provides for us to be precise and playful with words. It is a great learning activity to try in classes. I recommend it highly, not just in literature classes.

Here is mine, slightly edited from the first draft written on Feb 4 evening.

Some of the objects of inspiration: jade cat, brass bell, seagull feather, my red macrame knot

Objects of Interest

A friendship in Beijing
Solidified by a dark green jade cat
"An exotic city," R professed
Her love for that Forbidden City
Swiftly the gemstone transported me to my unspoken grief

"The first one was damaged
The second one stolen"
So a third ring her mother offered
A sparkling aquamarine set in silver
A symbol of T's childhood in Japan

Where has this bottle roamed
Whose lips have pursed against this rim
A chipped whiskey bottle top
Plucked from the grounds of Rappahannock Station
A decade and a half in L's keeping

A brown seagull's feather
From the shores of a Polly Island Beach
She recalled the loudness of the placidity
Life had become too big and clamorous
The ocean could swallow H
Like a hushed hiccup no one knows
Everything will be okay

Soft crystal clear peals
Of a miniature brass bell
With claws and etched with flowers
A gem found at Paul's Place of timeworn treasures
A renewed friendship from M's years in graduate school

I unveiled my dad's prosperity-red macrame knot
Don't weep, I will be brave
"My dad used it as a key-holder"
Words slow and deliberate, I uttered
Him who I can no longer hold
His effects, his assets, my objects of affection

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.