I have found that my students give a huge variety of responses in discussion boards. I have see responses this semester that range from “noice” to long, detailed paragraphs that ask constructive questions with the intent of furthering the conversation. Because of this huge range, I want to work on figuring out strategies to bring up the students that are giving one or two word responses to using full sentences and really contributing to the class discussions. One way that I am working on doing this, is providing students with great examples, not only ones that I have written, but ones by fellow classmates as well.
I have this one student in my Criminology class that always writes these extremely detailed responses. So I sent her a message and asked her permission to share some of these responses with my other students to give them an example of a student going above and beyond for the assignment.
(You can view an example of this here: https://www.screencast.com/t/yO1Mx3J7M)
I then used this student’s example to create an infographic to post in all of my classes. I am hoping that this will help some students see the kinds of things they should be including in their own discussion board responses.
(Click the image below to view the infographic)
Today I decided to try to involve students in a big part of my life, exercise.
I am completely obsessed with my Fitbit and I thought that that would be a great way to connect with students. When I was in the Face-to-Face classroom I had a student that would ask me every day, “How many steps do you have today?” and we would compare our step count on our Fitbits. So I am going to try to connect with students virtually using the Fitbit app. I shared with them how they can download the app (they can just use the app, they don’t even have to have an actual Fitbit tracker), add me, and then join or start a competition.
I think that this is a great way to connect with students and share a big part of my life because it is promoting a healthy lifestyle and you can only see very basic personal information about a person. All they can really see is my first name, my step average, and any trophies I have received. We can also set up challenges that include 2-10 people on who can get the most steps in a week or weekend. I thought it would be fun to have these competitions and then (with permission) announce the winners on the weekly announcements.
I am very excited to see what comes of this new idea, and I hope I have a lot of students participate in this new way of connecting with one another.
***Update: I already had a student add me on Fitbit!***
This is the announcement I posted:
https://create.piktochart.com/outpUut/25312269-fitbit
This week I reached out to a former classmate from MSU that is teaching Social Studies in a face-to-face classroom this year. I asked him a few questions about what he thinks of online education. These were my questions and his answers:
“Q: What are your overall thoughts about online learning?
A: Personally, I think that online learning is possible, and will probably become the way of the future in education. Only problem is that the troubles of the system haven’t been worked out, and in-person education still holds supreme, especially with regards to social interaction.
Q: Do you think that taking a few classes online is beneficial for a student’s future?
A: I think that a couple of online classes could definitely be a help to students in future. I could see a hybrid mix of an online class of student choice and then in-person classes for core subjects, like Algebra and US History. Especially in a world were technology is advancing very quickly, it’s very important for young students to understand how to learn and do business through online environments, especially when working with online communications.
Q: How do you think online classes compare to face-to-face classes in categories like, interaction, quality of material, and individualization?
A: I think online classes can really help individualize a class for students, especially for those who might move slower than the average student, or who need more support. I think that online classrooms do lack the personal interactions that an in-person classroom hails, and despite messaging devices, it is not equivalent to in-person collaboration – not to the same level. With regards to quality of material, I think that the online classroom can have the same quality of content to the in-person classroom, though I think that you need students to be able to take responsibility of organizing and effectively using materials provided.
Q: Do you know much about online education or is it just something that you’ve never heard much about before?
A: I have dabbled with online education, and am working on curriculum that could be applied and created for an online classroom”
After viewing his answers, one big idea that I came away with is that I think it is extremely important for online educators to be advocates for virtual learning. I think this because this educator that I interviewed did not seem to realize that we have students all across Michigan taking all of their classes online. And when I have told others about me being an online educator many are surprised to learn that we have been around for 20+ years. However, I was very happy to see that this person does not automatically assume that online classes have a lower quality of material. I think that a lot of people see online classes as being “easier”, but maybe with more information spread by those experienced with teaching/taking online classes, this myth will disappear. I also think that he made a good point when he brought up that it is “very important for young students to understand how to learn and do business through online environments, especially when workig with online communications’. I completely agree with this statement because we are becoming an increasingly technological world, and we should be preparing our students to be successful in this world.
I have reached out to other former classmates and will update when/if I hear back from more of them.
I am extremely proud of my Criminology students so far! This is the discussion prompt that I will be discussing in this post:
“Imagine you have a magic wand and you can immediately change a society to your liking. What acts, that are currently deviant, do you decide are no longer deviant? What are, that are currently illegal, do you make perfectly legal and okay? Or you could do the reverse and make something become deviant or illegal that used to be accepted. ”
So that is the question that students had to answer, as well as comment on two other posts. And I was amazed at the respectful and professional language all of my students used! Many students talked about the legalization of marijuana. Some argued for legalization, and some said that it should be completely illegal no matter what someone is using it for. When I first saw these posts I thought that they were going to be a problem for the class atmosphere. But, students debated respectfully back and forth and both sides backed up their opinions with facts and outside resources.
I think the thing that made the difference in this situation was language. Had students been arguing using slang or “because weed is cool” as an argument, it would have been an issue. But, my students were all using academic language and arguing using actual facts. This is something that I praised my students for when I saw it, and I have confidence that they will continue to argue respectfully in the future!
Making connections the first week with students is absolutely vital. That is what I have been focusing on for my first week with students.
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Failure: I sent the wrong link for my Welcome Letter to about 10 students. At least it was only ten! I am very glad that I caught my mistake and fixed it quickly, but it was definitely not surprising that something would go wrong this first week.
Success: Padlet! This summer my class padlet did get a response, but once a student posted initially they never even viewed/commented on other posts. This time around I made a game out of it instead of just an introduction. I had my students (and myself) play 2 Truths and a Lie via a padlet embedded into my announcements page and it was very successful! In my biggest class I had 37 students post on the padlet and I would say about 3/4ths also responded to others by commenting which they thought was the lie. It was slow moving at first, but I think that got to know each other better, and I got to connect with them on topics that are not at all related to class. Playing an introduction game like this on padlet is definitely something I would suggest to new teachers! Just because my classroom is online, doesn’t mean that I can’t use some of the same ideas that are successful in face-to-face classrooms.
*Also it was awesome to talk to students about their hobbies and pets through Padlet and the discussion boards. Especially since I had something really great to share – pictures of my new puppy!
This is my new puppy Captain America! He is an 8 week old Lab/German Shepherd mix that loves to chase leaves and cuddle all day. He is also a champion nap taker.