Teaching with Technology Workshop

1. Teaching with Technology Workshop Wed., August 30th, 2006 10am–12pm LIB393A

2. Welcome • Welcome to the Teaching with Technology Workshop! • Goal of this workshop: • To provide you with an overview of the digital media technologies available from the Digital Media Projects Office (DMP). • To briefly demonstrate to you how you can teach effectively using these technologies. • Workshop presenters: • Sanjay Lakhana, LTL for Faculty of Communication & Design • Sarah Chu, LTL for Faculty of Engineering, Architecture & Science • Ilona Karasyova, LTL for Faculty of Arts

3. Role of the LTL • Learning Technology Liaisons (LTLs) act as liaisons between the faculties and the DMP. • LTLs provide support and training to faculty members and staff in the use of digital media technologies for teaching and learning.

4. Agenda • Audio / Visual Technologies (Sanjay) • Communication / Collaboration Tools (Sarah) • Assessment Tools (Ilona) • Question and Answer

5. Audio / Visual

6. Digital Audio and Video an Overview Supported by Learning Technology Liasons

7. Pedagogical Benefits of Audio and Video in Teaching Facilitates Blended Learning • a mix of teaching and or facilitation methods, learning styles, resource formats, a range of technologies and a range of expertise into a learning stream. -www.wikipedia.com

8. Pedagogical Benefits of Audio and Video in Teaching • A form of Asynchronous Learningthat can compliment other forms of synchronous learning • Allows students to participate on their own schedules and at their own pace. • Useful in distance education – provides detailed content remotely

9. Increasing Effectiveness Add synchronous and active learning to your blend! • Encourage student discussion of audio and video content (in class or online) • Maximize student retention - limit viewing/listening to 10 minute intervals, followed by pause and discussion. • Active learning requires student interaction and participation, presenting questions and facilitating discussion following any viewing/listening assignment is helpful and motivating

10. What is DIGITAL Audio and Video? • Content that can be stored on digital media such as: • Hard drives • USB keys • CD’s • Remote servers (internet, Blackboard) • Digital content can be created, edited and played back in non linear time • Can be duplicated with no loss of quality

11. Common Digital Audio Formats • CD – Compact Disk – high quality compressed audio • mp3 – variable quality compressed audio (often used for audio ‘Podcasting’) • .wav – uncompressed audio • Streaming – i.e. Real Media – variable quality compressed audio (.ram, .rm)

12. Common Digital Video Formats • .mpeg • .avi • dvd • .wmv • QuickTime - m4v for video ‘Podcasting’ • rm: Real Media - often used for streaming • Flash – often used for animation

13. High Resolution Video

14. Low Resolution Video

15. How to Include Audio and Video in your Course • Add content to your course documents in Blackboard • Integrate it into PowerPoint Presentations • Make it available on course and research websites • Have it hosted on Ryecast for streaming • Create ‘Podcasts’ of content for student use

16. Blackboard – Adding Audio and Video Content

17. PowerPoint – Adding Audio

18. PowerPoint - Adding Video

19. Webcasting and Streaming • a single content source and delivered to multiple listeners or viewers through a network - internet • Distance is not an issue as with traditional broadcasting

20. Audio and Video Streaming • Content is encoded and hosted on a special web servers which send content as a steady flow or "stream" of data vs. a complete file • Used for both ‘Live’ broadcasts and prerecorded content • Quality of content delivered depends on the encoding used and the bandwidth available

21. Supports live webcasts and online streaming of QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real Media content (audio and video).

22. Streamulator • Software created by the Digital Media Projects Office and exclusive to Ryerson! • Allows for live or pre-recorded audio and video production, integrating video, audio images and PowerPoint content from any networked computer equipped with a camera and microphone • Content can be streamed live or instantly uploaded to Ryerson’s Ryecast streaming server and made available to students worldwide

23. Cost effective professional consulting and production services are available through the Digital Media Projects Office • Live Broadcasts are possible • Content can be pre-recorded for future broadcast • Content can be hosted and available for online stream 24/7

24. To use Ryecast and/or Streamulator please contact: • Your Learning Technology Liaison • Jeremy Littler (x7039) jlittler@ryerson.ca • John Hajdu (x6919) jhajdu@ryerson.ca • Visit www. ryecast.ryerson.ca

25. What is Podcasting? • A subscription service that automatically finds and updates subscribed content. • Content is automatically downloaded to a computer or portable media player such as an iPod. • “Really Simple Syndication”, “RSS”– special coding which identifies content (title, topic, episode etc.)

26. Podcasting Using iTunes • Users can search for and subscribe to ‘Podcasts’ they are interested in • Users can also create and distribute their own ‘Podcasts’

27. Creating Audio Content • Most computers include simple recording software such as Windows Recorder or Apple Garageband – just plug in a microphone • Recorded audio can be converted to mp3 with iTunes or Windows Media Player • For more complex recording software talk to your LTL

28. Simple Video Editing - Windows

29. Creating Video Content • WORKSHOP: From Vision to Video • Starts November 22nd (4 classes) • a hands-on introductory video workshop introducing the process of video making and delivery via online and DVD methods.

30. Your Next Steps! • Contact your faculty Learning Technology Liaison! • Sign Up for Workshops! • Book a Faculty Suite! • Experiment! • Have Fun!

31. Communication / Collaboration

32. What online communication and collaboration technologies can you think of?

33. Online Communication / Collaboration Tools • Discussion boards • Blogs • Wikis • Web conferences • Others include: Instant messaging, voice over IP, podcasting, etc. • Remember: these technologies are only tools!

34. Discussion Boards • The online equivalent to a bulletin board. • Messages are posted to the discussion board and everyone who can access the board can read and reply to the messages. • A thread on a discussion board is made up of an initial message and all replies to that message. • A forum is like a folder that contains numerous threads/conversations along a similar topic.

35. Discussion Boards on Blackboard • http://my.ryerson.ca To promote student engagement: • Require participation • Be specific about grading • Form learning groups • 12-15 students maximum • Make the activities interesting • Icebreakers for the first post (i.e. two truths-one lie, 5 nouns) • Structure the activity • Be specific about your expectations

36. Blogs • Short form of “weblog”. • Like an online log, journal, or diary with dated entries. • A way of publicly posting to the web your thoughts, opinions, and insights on any topic. • Blogs can be setup to allow only you or a specific group of people to post entries. • You can allow others to comment on your entries, fostering collaboration.

37. Blogs on Blogger • http://teachtechworkshop.blogspot.com • Ryerson’s new blogging tool, Roller, will soon be available. To promote student engagement: • Require participation • Be specific about grading • Form learning groups • 12-15 students maximum • Don’t settle for just opinions • Encourage deeper thinking, more insightful writing • Require a hand-in assignment • One minute response paper, 3 best postings

38. Wikis • “Wiki wiki” is the Hawaiian word for “quick”. • A wiki is a website containing web pages that can be viewed and modified by anyone, at anytime, from anywhere. • Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org - allows users to post new articles in the online encyclopedia or edit existing content.

39. Wikis on Seedwiki • http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/teachwithtech • Wiki-based activity: • Place students into small groups of 5 to 10. • Assign each group with a course reading or topic to summarize. • Group members collaboratively summarize and monitor their article on the wiki. To promote student engagement: • Require participation • Be specific about grading • Require a hand-in assignment • The final summary, 3 best edits

40. Web Conferences • A web conference is an online environment that allows for such activities as: • data conferencing • screen sharing • text messaging • document/file sharing • live video and audio conferencing using a webcam • Can be a supplement to face-to-face and distance courses.

41. Web Conferences using Breeze • http://peldi.ryerson.ca/teachwithtech • You can use Breeze to make up a missed class due to holiday, poor weather conditions, or other conflicts. • Students may wish to do their course presentations online using Breeze. • Students can also use Breeze to discuss a course reading or topic, allowing them to videoconference while sharing resources.

42. Things to Remember • Effective learning requires: • Motivation • Mutual respect • Collaboration / Participation • Methods appropriate to learners • Feedback on performance • Critical reflection / Self direction • Make your presence known, monitor your students’ use of these tools as often as you can. • This can be done by posting replies and comments, or by mentioning popular discussion items in class.

43. Assessment

44. Introduction • Advantages and disadvantages of online assessment • Blackboard assessment tools • How to organize effective online assessment • How to prevent cheating

45. Online Assessment • Advantages • students can write exams from any convenient location • tests are submitted directly into Blackboard’s Gradebook, no paper work involved • tests can be automatically scored • Disadvantages • no supervision – students can cheat • Internet connection may fail or a computer may crash during exam • some test items (short-answer, essays, problem-solving questions) have to be graded manually

46. Blackboard Assessment Tools • Blackboard Control Panel • Test and Survey Managers • Pool Manager • Gradebook and Gradebook Views • Course Statistics and Performance Dashboard http://my.ryerson.ca

47. Question Pools • Grouping and storing assessment questions for future use • Creating a pool and adding questions to this pool • Importing question pools from outside of your course • Types of assessment questions

48. Types of Questions • Objective tests • an answer can be recognized and selected from two or more alternatives • multiple choice, true/false, matching tests • evaluate recognition rather than recall • fairly difficult to construct • easy to grade • allow for guessing

49. Types of Questions • Constructed-response tests • learners are required to plan answers and express them in their own words • short-answer, essay and problem-solving tests • evaluate high-level cognitive objectives • easy to construct • fairly difficult to obtain reliable scores

50. Recommendations • Create a question pool for each chapter of the textbook • Create as many questions as possible • You can bring any or all of the questions from your chapter pool to a chapter assessment • Use all chapters’ pools for the final exam • Use “Random Block” to select questions randomly from your pool(s) of questions