When we think about the "typical" classroom, we think of a large room with several people gathered inside, listening to the instructor give the day's materials while students try hard to take notes and follow along. This setting could make it difficult for students who have difficulty staying engaged and who easily find themselves getting off topic. Throw in a missed day for illness or other reason and the student can easily find themselves struggling to get caught up.
Classrooms, however, are changing. Students look for new ways to get their information and instructors want to find solutions to helping students get and stay engaged. Enter the podcast.
There are several benefits for using a podcast in an adult classroom. First of all, podcasts are available to student's 24 hours per day to students with internet availability (Gray, 2017). Students can access the blog at any time - in the car, while exercising, etc- and can engage in listening to their tolerance level, stopping when they want or need to and resuming when they are ready. Missed classes are no longer a problem as the information can be picked up as soon as the teacher posts the podcast. As everyone learns differently, auditory learners can have another method of learning that related to them, while visual learners can take their time taking their notes and pull in charts or other information as needed to help them learn. (Gray, 2017). Instructors can use podcasts as lecture supplements, lectures for a flipped classroom, exam reviews, tutorials for specific items, interviews or other creative uses to get students engaged (King, 2011).
Cons to podcasting do exist for both the student and instructor. While podcasting is relatively inexpensive and simple to access, designing may be more complex (King, 2011). Free programs or inexpensive programs to launch a podcast do exist, but it does require a little bit of technical knowledge to pull it together. Students who are not tech savvy may resent being asked to podcast an assignment, so other assignment possibilities should be considered for those who are uncomfortable with the assignment or who do not have the equipment to make their own. Using the equipment may also require some editing, and it is important to not allow the presentation to overshadow the content that is being offered. Copyright is also an important consideration. It is not that copyright is unimportant in other venues, but while people are mindful of attributing sources to the written word, they may be less mindful of attributing the spoken word. Therefore, it is important to understand how copyright laws apply to a podcast.
In the end, there are many benefits for a podcast, as they serve as an extension to the classroom. If the cons are considered before implementation, and those considerations are managed, the podcast can be a workable solution to student engagement issues for instructors looking for newer methods to reach their students.
Gray, C. (2017). Podcasting in education: What are the benefits? The Podcast Host. From https://www.thepodcasthost.com/niche-case-study/podcasting-in-education/
King, K (2011). Podcasting: Learning on demand and content creation. In K. King & T. Cox
(Eds.). The professor's guide to taming technology, (33-49). Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Monday, April 22, 2019
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Podcast!
For this week I interviewed a colleague about implementing technology into a college curriculum. For this project, I interviewed Laurie from a college in the Midwest regarding her experiences with this. We talked about why the technology was needed and the good and the bad that came with this update. You can listen to this podcast here: Integrating LMS into curriculum
I'll be back to follow up on this experience in a little bit....
For this week I interviewed a colleague about implementing technology into a college curriculum. For this project, I interviewed Laurie from a college in the Midwest regarding her experiences with this. We talked about why the technology was needed and the good and the bad that came with this update. You can listen to this podcast here: Integrating LMS into curriculum
I'll be back to follow up on this experience in a little bit....
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Wiki Lesson Plan
Travel Planning Wiki Page
THE ASSIGNMENT
As part of this travel and tourism course, students will work together to compile a travel planning page that can be used for planning in the future. This page, commonly known as a wiki, is a great resource for collaboration and allows for all students in this class to have access to many sample travel plans by doing a small share of the work. Through this wiki, students need minimal knowledge of building a wiki and can collaborate together to develop a repository of knowledge and links that users can continue to use well past the constraints of this course (Vanderbilt, 2019).
Learning Objectives:
1) Students will recognize the basic components of vacation planning, including travelers needs and restraints.
2) Students will be able to synthesize a variety of vacation destinations within budgetary, time and group constraints.
3) Students will appreciate working collaboratively in a team to create a finished project.
4) Students will develop the beginnings of a travel brochure.
Why a wiki?
A wiki was chosen for this project as it allows students to actively learn the information and share that information with others. Done alone, students would need to dedicate many hours to develop 16 different destinations/scenarios, whereas the wiki will provide access to the 16 while allowing each student to play a part. Students will be able to connect with their teammates and draw from the strengths of their team to put together a product that can be used even after the class is over (West & West, 2009).
Assignment details
For this assignment you will pretend that you are putting together vacation possibilities for a certain group. The teams will be as follows:
Team 1) Plan a 7 day 6 night vacation based on number of travelers.
Put together a vacation for a family with 2 kids, ages 7 and 9;
a vacation for a group of friends planning a bachelor/bachelorette getaway;
a vacation for honeymooners
and finally a vacation for an older couple without kids.
Team 2) Plan a vacation for a family of four for 7 days and 6 nights based on budget
Put together a vacation for $1000, $1000-2000; $2000-4000 and $4000+
Team 3) Plan a domestic travel vacation for 5 days 4 nights for two travelers based on time zones
Put together a HI/Pacific; Mountain, Central and Eastern
Team 4) Plan international travel for 5 days 4 nights for two travelers-
choose 4 separate countries/regions
Each team will be responsible for finding 4 SEPARATE vacation destination spots. Each team needs to include:
1) The locale of the destination, including pictures
2) The price of the vacation for the number of people and number of nights- estimate the cost of
the flight based on summer travel from our local airport
3) Food and lodging estimates for the destination, as well as suggestions for available options
4) At least 3 travel trips to consider when taking the vacation, dos and dont's for the region.
The Plan
Week 1: Teams will be assigned by the instructor. Each student will need to go to the sample wiki to post a quick paragraph of their favorite vacation as well as a picture of the destination, to show they are able to post to the wiki.
Week 2: Teams will meet for the first time with the instructor via zoom to plan the wiki and set milestones. Students will also return to the sample wiki and post an additional line to each classmates post. "Never been", "want to go" or "have been there" is acceptable to show how wikis can be edited, but students can post more if they choose to do so.
Weeks 3-5:Teams will work on wikis. Students can determine how they want to break up the work. Students can continue to work on the wiki components per group decision process.
Week 6: Final wiki is due to the page at the end of the week.
Week 7: Students will review the wiki of other groups. Students will need to comment on each of the other teams pages.
Week 8: Wiki assessment and travel brochure. Student will complete an assessment of the process, as well as a self-assessment of their own work and an assessment of the team's work overall. Students will use the wiki information to put together a sample travel brochure for a destination of the students choice, based on information from the wiki.
RULES of the Wiki
1) Wikis are meant to be collaborative. While the team may choose whether to select a team leader or not, all students should note that editing should be agreed upon- don't delete someone's contribution just because you do not agree with it. Everyone should feel engaged and as though they have some ownership of the page
2) Cite your work!!
3) Be creative- Add pictures, videos, color and fonts.
Rubric:
The wiki portion of the assignment is worth 60 points. See syllabus for more information about the travel brochure.
10 points- Wiki page is organized in a manner that makes sense to the viewer. Title is clearly
marked and the 4 points to include for each locale can be easily located.
5 points- Wiki page is mostly organized, but some items could be better placed for viewing.
0 points- Wiki page is disorganized, and no identifiable format can be noted.
10 points- Teams include all 4 points for all 4 destinations
5 points- Teams are missing 1-2 points of data
0 points- 3 or more data points are missing
10 points- Team data is well-planned for budget, travel group size, or locale. Attention is
"personalized" for the destination and the focus for the team.
5 points- Team data may meet the focus for the team but could be more well-developed for
the focus.
0 points- Team data does not meet the focus, or is very general. Data is not specific to region
or destination.
10 points- Wiki is colorful and inviting. Links are functioning and useful for a vacation
planner wanting to plan a vacation with the focus given.
5 points- Wiki has some pictures and links, but links may not be functioning in all places or
pictures and data may not provide a clear idea of the destination.
0 points- Wiki is bare. Links do not function or are not present. Pictures are minimal.
10 points- Students will complete an assessment of the wiki, providing a clear assessment of
what was learned, as well as an honest assessment of the student and group
contributions
5 points- Assessment is vague and instructor cannot understand what was learned or how
student or others on the student's team contributed.
0 points- Assessment is not completed.
APA format
10 points- Proper APA citations are used and all data is cited properly.
5 points- APA citation is used, but there are errors or a missing citation
0 points- APA citation is not used, several citation errors are present, more than 1 citation is
missing.
References
Vanderbilt. (2019). Wikis. Vanderbilt Center for teaching. Retrieved online April 10, 2019 from
cft.vanderbilt.edu/wikis.
West, J. & West, M. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Pros and Cons for Wikis for the Adult Learner
Wikis in the Adult Classroom
A wiki is a great spot for learning and collaboration for a group activity and can contribute a lot to the adult learning classroom. This week I plan to dig into the wiki and look at the pros and cons of the use of the wiki as an additional teaching and learning tool.The Pros of Using a Wiki
The pros of using a wiki in the classroom are plentiful. Wikis provide an open space for learners to contribute, similar to a whiteboard hanging in the traditional classroom setting. Students can enter the wiki, make their contribution to the class or project, enter comments and collaborate while being hundreds of miles away from their classmates. Wikis allow for an asynchronous environment so that the entire group does not have to be available at the same time. When work is done on the page, other members of the group can see who was there and when and the most recent copy is always saved to the page. Wikis can also limit access by appointing an administrator who can allow access to the site or limit visitors to settings such as editor, writer or comments only on some sites and also have the ability to limit or restrict public access to the site.
The Cons of Using a Wiki
Where there are pros, there are corresponding cons to the wiki use as well. Some wikis will only allow one member to make changes to the page at once, which is great for editing purposes, but can make collaboration difficult if two users are trying to edit at the same time. Furthermore, with some wikis, I can go on, see that another user was there and editing, but really have to dig in to find what changes were made by that user, so subtle changes may not be easily addressed.While the wiki allows for users to go into the site and make changes, users on the site can also delete others ideas or contributions (West & West, 2009).While an administrator is a great idea, it can also become difficult for one person to operate the entire site, as the administrator is in charge of adding or removing users from the site as well as monitoring comments. Even sites that allow the administrator to allow password protections for the users to limit outside use will need to spend extra time admitting access to the site (Lari, 2011). Finally, the most obvious con of wiki use would be on a public site, where anyone could come on the site and make changes or comments, and regular users on the site will not necessarily know who is visiting. With open sites, it is difficult to gauge whether everyone contributing to the site is doing so with good intentions and proper information or whether they are submitting intentional or unintentional misinformation.
Conclusion
In conclusion however, most of the wiki sites I have used have been favorable experiences. I have used them at work and in the classroom and they work well for collaboration, learning and information sharing. I haven't used a public site so it is hard for me to remark upon site strangers or unknown deletions. These sites do what they are supposed to do- provide editable information for shared use and I would recommend them for items that change frequently and will be shared by many.
Lari, P (2011). The use of wikis for collaboration in higher education. In K. King & T. Cox
(Eds.). The professor's guide to taming technology, (89-104). Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
West, J., & West, M. (2009). Using wikis for online collaboration. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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