Getting to know you: The first week of class and beyond

The first week of class… Whether on-campus or online, we always plan a few orientation and get-to-know-you activities in an attempt to get our courses off on the right foot. I actually really enjoy these activities, but I always look for new ways to accomplish my objectives. One thing I’ve learned is that, especially in online courses, orientation and get-to-know-you activities cannot – and should not – just be addressed during the first week of a class. To really support students and help build a productive learning community, these types of activities need to occur throughout the semester. Below are a few activities I have used and am planning to use in my online course this fall.


Orientation –
In an on-campus course, it can be deadly boring to spend the first class meeting reading through the syllabus. However, there is important information in the syllabus that we want students to know and keep track of. In online courses, it can also be boring…and, therefore, students sometimes don’t go through all of the course materials as precisely as is need to be successful in the course. Here are a few things I have done, and am doing, in my online course this semester to help students with orientation.

Orientation videos: One of my biggest additions this fall was the inclusion of orientations videos for my online course. I created three 5-minute orientation videos, with each video walking students through a different aspect of the course shell, learning activities, and projects. Using Jing, I was able to create a screencast showing them all around the course shell. I interjected my sense of humor where possible, told a couple of stories, and provided explanations for my design decisions. These three videos not only oriented students to the course, but to me as well.

Course & syllabus scavenger hunt: Using the quiz feature in my learning management system (LMS), I created a course and syllabus scavenger hunt that students had to submit by the end of the first week. To complete the 12-question scavenger hunt, students had to read the syllabus, locate materials in the course shell, and watch the orientation videos. The results of the scavenger hunt reassured me that students were locating and tracking important course information, and alerted me to any misconceptions or confusions that individual students had about the materials. Example questions:

• In your own words, what are the learning objectives for this course? What is the reason for listing the ILT competencies with the learning objectives?
  
• Why is "creative" part of the course title?
  
• There are four projects for the course: Presentation Makeover Magic, Job Aid Makeover Spectacular, Presentation Prowess, and Design Lessons Learned. Which project are you most looking forward to working on? Why?
  
• Why are the weekly agendas for each week's learning activities hidden at the start of the semester?

Weekly announcements: At the start of each week (which in my online courses is Monday since I set up the weeks to go from Monday to Sunday in the course shell), I post a new announcement orienting students to the activities of the week. Even though this information exists elsewhere in the course, I like to provide a more personal announcement about the week. I start each announcement with a brief description of my weekend with a photo (usually of me and my family). Then I provide a reminder about how they should focus their time and energy. I end each announcement with a reminder about how to connect with me, and a wish for a great week.

Weekly agendas: For each week in the course, I have a weekly agenda checklist that students can print out to help them track what they should be working on during the week. Again, although this information exists in the course’s master calendar, it helps to have the week’s activities laid out in checklist format.



Getting-to-know-you –
I don’t think it is very realistic to get to know people – especially in an online course – with one share-your-bio activity during the first week of class. Building relationships and community requires multiple opportunities to share and connect. So, every week or two, I reengage students in getting-to-know-you activities. Here are a few of the activities I am using in my online course this semester.

Superhero powers: For this activity, students responded to the following prompt:

What are your superhero powers? What is your superhero moniker? And, how do your superhero powers help you in life?

Using VoiceThread, students share a photo and record their response (see below). Their creative responses are so fun…and the results are that we really learn about the assets that each person sees as her or his strengths. It is a very positive approach to a typical share-your-bio activity that also results in learning more about each person’s playful side and creative spirit.

Virtual paper bag: For this activity, I asked students to each pick five items that represent who they are and what is important to them. They pulled together visual representations of their five items for a virtual paper bag. They posted their five images to Flickr (or another tool of their choosing, as long as the rest of the class could easily access their collection in the end). Once everyone had posted their virtual paper bag collection of images, students reviewed each other’s collections, and engaged in discussion of why those items were selected and what the items "mean". The results were that students learned about each other’s passions, values, families, and the like; learned about differences and similarities; and learned each other’s stories. This activity helped students feel more connected then they did before. And they remember details about each other because of the items and stories...because of the emotion involved in the sharing.

“If you were a tree” Wordle: Similar to the virtual paper bag activity, for this activity I will ask students to create a Wordle word cloud using 20 words that represents who they are. This activity is scheduled for next week, and I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with!

Soundtrack of your life: As another way for students to get to know each other, I ask each student to share a playlist of six songs: two that represent their past, two that represent their present, and two that represent their planned/hoped for future. After students share their playlists, the group asks questions about the songs -- sort of a 20-questions activity -- to figure out why each student selected the songs she or he did. They students consider the group’s shared interests, differences, and so on (e.g., how many folks like jazz, or female songwriters, or sad songs). I use Songza for this activity, but there are many digital jukebox tools out there to choice from.

A 5-minute conversation: During the first few weeks of my online course, I invited students to participate in a 5-minute phone conversation with me. I did this so that the students and I might feel more connected and less distant from each other, and so we could hear each other laugh. About half of the students have taken me up on it so far, and my plan is to keep inviting students at different points throughout the course to make sure all who do want to talk have a chance to.

A few strategies for setting the right tone for online discussions

As a staple of online instructional interaction, online discussions are a big part of what takes place in the learning community – it is through these discussions, often, that much of the learning occurs. Therefore, learners’ comfort with participating in online discussions can have a big influence on what they achieve in the course. Comfort can be achieved through establishing trust with the instructor and with course colleagues, and through practice via non-threatening discussion experiences. To establish trust, consider the following strategies:

• Share a story, related to the content of the course if possible, that gives learners insight into your values, passions, interests, etc. Consider using a tool such as PowerPoint to enhance your story with photos, images, and audio clips (including your voice) – making it a digital story, in other words. See http://www.augustcouncil.com/~jdunlap/movie for an example of a digital story that helps my students feel more connected to me (and, therefore, more willing to share and participate in course activities, specifically discussion) while introducing an important topic my courses – values for teaching and learning. Notice that students never see the me, but hear my voice, see photos of my family, and listen to me describe a life-altering event that reflects my own values around teaching and learning. Now that I have shared, the students are more open to sharing.
  
  
• Ask students to post bios/introductions, but to encourage discourse around the shared information ask them to share of list of “facts” about themselves – some true and some not true. Have students engage in a “20 Questions” like discussion so they can determine which facts are in fact false. Besides the practice with using the discussion forum tool and responding appropriately to others’ messages, students start making connections that help them feel more comfortable. “We graduated from the same high school!” “You like to quilt too. What was your last project?” “I’ve been to Australia too. You have to go to Perth…” “What do you mean, ‘Don’t get off the boat in Ensenada’? There’s a story there.”
  
  
• For purposes of practicing online discussion (using the tools, protocols, etiquette, etc.), give learners opportunities to discuss non-threatening, low-judgmental topics. Consider the following activities:
  
  • Send students to a website that requires they do something and then ask them to share their experience with the group. For example,
    
    • Have students visit http://trevorvanmeter.com/flyguy/ and respond to the following questions in a discussion forum:
      - What happens to you while you are there?
      - What is your favorite part of the experience?
      - Why do you think I am asking you to do these sorts of activities?
      
    • Have them visit the Mr. Picassohead website -- http://www.mrpicassohead.com/ -- and create an artwork, then submit a link to the discussion forum. Once posted, encourage students to comment on each other’s artwork.
      
    
    
  • Post entertaining photos (not related to the course content) and ask students to share their captions. See below for an example of one of my favorite photos with some student captions.
    
    
    A few student captions:
    
    • Wait please! I do have good news...I just saved tons of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.
      
    • Tim Burton "re-imagines" When Harry Met Sally.
      
    • I can take the giant brain, I can take the claws for hands, but why must you insist on wearing blue leather pants every time we go out?
      
    • MIT student enrolls at UCD. Instructors panic!
      
    • Listen, you're a nice guy and have a great personality, but my mother simply won't accept a son-in-law whose brain is on the outside.
      
    • During a break on the set, Ted belts out a rendition of "If I only had brain" on his air guitar. Meanwhile, Mary makes a run for it, hoping her career as an actress is still intact.
    
    

Wordle...just for phluff?

I've been using a fun (and quite popular) online tool called Wordle to produce images of word collections. For example, I recently created a Wordle image as a main page graphic for my online course. Here is a simple one that summarizes what I write about on this blog --



In this example, some words -- such as teaching -- are larger than others because they are included in the word list more frequently than others. To illustrate, if I were creating a Wordle image to represent the concept of baseball, my initial list of terms for this concept would include: baseball, bat, field, hat, player, field, umpire, glove, stadium, fans, hotdogs, popcorn, etc. This list would produce a Wordle image in which all of the words were the same size, indicating that they were of equal importance in understanding the concept of baseball. However, from my perspective, the word baseball is more important to understanding the concept then hotdog or popcorn. Therefore, I would modify the list as follows to make sure baseball was the most prominent word in the Wordle image: baseball, baseball bat, baseball field, baseball hat, baseball player, baseball field, and so on. With the revised list, the most frequently used word is baseball, so it would be the largest word in the Wordle image. In this way, I can easily illustrate word strength and importance within a list of words if desirable.

Wordle can be used for instructional purposes. For example, I have asked students to produce Wordle images that represent their understanding of a reading, topic, concept, or idea. Then, I ask small groups of students to debrief their images together to discuss what terms they selected and why, why some terms are larger than others (or what terms should be larger than others because they are more important), and so on. A variation is to limit the number of words students (working as individuals or in small groups) can use to describe a complex concept (e.g., constructivism, eLearning, diversity), and have them create a Wordle image that captures the essence of the concept with exactly 20 words. I have also used it to create word collections and asked students to determine how the words are connected, and what topic the collection of words describe. These types of activities encourage students to reflect on a topic or concept, and articulate their understanding based on that reflection.

Wordle can also be used during class introductions, specifically in online courses. Instead of asking students to share a bio, students can produce a Wordle image that summarizes who they are, likes and dislikes, hobbies, and so on. Again, it is a fun way to encourage reflection, articulation, and sharing.

Scavenger hunts for encouraging students to read and process the syllabus

In my post on Jazzing up the syllabus, I describe a few ways to make going through the syllabus during the first class meeting a relevant learning opportunity. What I neglected to share is a strategy I've been using in my online courses for several years -- the scavenger hunt. In my online courses I ask students to complete a scavenger hunt about the course, with most of the content for the hunt coming from the syllabus. Here is a list of scavenger hunt questions I used in a recent course:

1. In your own words, state the learning objectives for this course.
   
2. In your own words, describe the purpose and requirements of the team project.
   
3. On what days of the week are assignments and projects due?
   
4. What learning objectives are addressed by the individual project due on March 9th?
   
5. For what reason(s) would a student be granted an incomplete in the course?
   
6. What is the purpose of the Weekly Survey?
   
7. Who are the authors of the required texts?
   
8. What is meant by academic freedom?
   
9. What will you be able to add to your portfolio and/or resume in terms of knowledge, skills, and products as a result of successfully completing this course?
   
10. What is the best way to reach Joni outside of the course? How quickly will Joni respond to email? And, when is it best to contact Joni with questions, concerns, challenges, etc.?
    

Everyone in the course is required to complete the scavenger hunt, so it is an easy way for me to verify that everyone has at least looked at the syllabus.

Syllabus scavenger hunts also work well in on-campus courses. On the first night of class, you can have dyads or triads working on a hunt, and make it a contest for teams -- which teams get it done the quickest, which teams' responses are the most accurate, and which team accomplishes both. You can make the questions more complex, so that students have to dig deeply into the syllabus to answer the questions.

A syllabus scavenger hunt is an easy way to ensure that students read the syllabus during the first week (if online) or first night (if on-campus), and it allows me an opportunity to immediately clarify things based on the students' responses. And, it's fun!

I write the songs...digital music in the classroom

I am very interested in figuring out how to use digital music with students. Whether teaching online or on campus, my students are often carrying mp3 players, iPods, or some sort of device for playing and listening to music. Instead of asking them to set that stuff aside, I want to use music in instructional ways. Here are a few ideas:

• Pick a course topic and have students find songs that say something about that topic. For example, I teach educators, so I have students find songs about school (such as School's Out, We're Going to be Friends, Be True to Your School, Hot for Teacher, and so on). Then, they share their songs and we discuss what the songs tell us about the experience of school...the good, the bad, and the ugly.
  
  
• Related to the idea above, have students pick a word (e.g., power) or an event (e.g., when they felt like they had really succeeded at something) or an emotion/state-of-mind (e.g., confidence), and find a song that represents that word/event/emotion. Students can include an explanation of how/why the song represents that word for them, or students can engage in a 20-question activity to ferret out why each student selected their song.
  
  
• Have students bring in a song and rewrite the lyrics to reflect a particular course topic (everyone can write lyrics for a 12-bar blues, after all). I have a colleague who does this at the end of a course, and students perform their songs (original or rewrite)!
  
  
• Have students select a song, and then create a music video for the song. The video should reflect a particular course topic. For example, if I was teaching a course on language, literacy, and culture, I could have students pick any song, but then create a video in support of the song that reflects diversity. [This idea relates to the various digital storytelling posts in this blog.]
  
  
• As a way for students to get to know each other, each student could share a song and explain why the song is meaningful to her or him (I call this the "Soundtrack of Your Life" activity). Or, alternatively, students could share their songs, and then the group could ask questions about the song -- sort of a 20-questions activity -- to figure out why each student selected the song she or he did. Finally, the shared songs could be used to consider the groups shared interests, differences, and so on (e.g., how many folks like jazz, or female songwriters, or sad songs). A great tool for this is Finetune. Finetune allows you to create playlists from a large library of music, and then makes it easy to share your playlists with others. Songza is a similar tool that I also like. So, for the Soundtrack activity, I ask students to create Finetune or Songza playlists that are shared with others in the class. To give you an idea of what you end up with, here are a few examples of my playlists:
  
  June 17, 2008 (in Songza) ~
  
  
  
  Easy Listening Groove (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2284782
  
  Living in London 1978 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2285010
  
  Is that the Amtrak train, already? - Chico, 1988 (in Finetune) ~
  
  http://www.finetune.com/playlist/2289503
  
  
  

"Stump the Professor"

I have been playing with the idea of playing games with students in online courses, mostly influenced by recently seeing an episode of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" online. When I think about those types of games -- Jeopardy, Millionaire, and so on -- I think that it is the questions that make the games interesting. And, that the folks who have the most fun and learn the most are those who construct the questions. It is hard to write a good question. If you can write a good question...that's everything. So, I've been having students -- as individuals or in teams -- compete to develop a great question that can stump me and the rest of the class. Then we have a race to see who can answer it first -- me or them (usually in teams). They usually win, and that's very cool.

Fun tool for making videos

What a fun tool -- Animoto!

I created this video in about 10 minutes.



My thinking is that I could use this tool to help me establish presence with my online students -- sharing photo collages to give them another way to get to know about me and my life. And, I could ask them to do the same as part of their introduction at the beginning of an online course. It is a way to jazz up the conventional "post your photo and bio" activity.

Patting the ego on the head

This is a little off topic... Every year, the faculty participate in a merit review of what we have accomplished over the last year. One of the lenses we examine our work through is impact on the profession and community -- this is something we value very much. There are many ways to look at this, but here are a few fun ways:

• Go to http://scholar.google.com/ and plug in your name or the title of one of your articles, presentations, and so on. This search brings up all of the other articles, presentations, and so on that reference you and your work.
  
  
• Set up a Google Alert using your name or specific article/work as your search term. Google Alerts will then send you a report (daily, weekly...whatever you select) showing you recent references on the Web relevant to your search terms (in this case, your name or specific article/work).
  
  
• If you have a blog like this one, install a counter. I use Site Meter, which sends me a nightly report showing me who (well, not who exactly, but where) has accessed my blog, how much time they spent, what they looked at, and how they got to my blog.
  

Flickr photo sets

I have three new Flickr photo sets:

-- Kids...

-- Attempted Creativity

-- Her First Word
Note: This is an example of how to use Flickr for digital storytelling.

I've been thinking about the various ways to use this tool with students. You could have students take photos on a particular topic and set up a Flickr site (an individual can set up 3 sets for free). For example, given that MLK Day is right around the corner, students could set up a Flickr set illustrating how the fight for freedom and equality has been manifested (or not) in their lives, or what "honoring diversity" means to them. Or students could work together sharing photos that illuminate what it's like to be a student at their school, or what it's like to be their age. Or, if students cannot provide their own digital photos, you could provide students with a large set of photos, and have them select a sub-set that tells their story or a story they want to tell.

Since Flickr allows the inclusion of some commentary, the tool can be used for digital storytelling and self-expression (my "Her First Word" Flickr set is an example of a digital story)...which can be very empowering. And fun.


Related posts in this blog:
Storytelling for presence
Creating digital stories with VoiceThread

Cool kinetic sculptures

I love this sort of thing. Theo Jansen, a Dutch sculpture, has created beach creatures out of electrical tubing and lemonade bottles. Check out this demonstration -- love the creativity...and the possibilities!

Stuff to inspire

This is just a collection of links that I am tracking. Things that make me smile...

Achievement!



Merry Christmas message


Dancing bird