To Be or Not To Be: Virtual or Real?

During the past two weeks, I have participated in two conferences – one virtual and one in person (real). Today, I have been reflecting on the merits of each and trying to decide which I prefer (which is “better”?).

Merits of a face-to-face conference:

1. I like people and people-watching. It is interesting to watch the interactions, the facial expressions, the body language of the presenters and attendees in a conference session. I enjoy sitting in the hotel lobby or the conference break area and watching the variety of people who walk by.

2. I like the immediacy of the interaction. You ask a question and you get an immediate answer. You introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you and immediately a conversation begins.

3. I like picking up the freebies from the vendors and talking with them about their products.

4. I like the sense of community and connection that comes with wearing the conference badge or carrying the conference bag. Strangers on the elevator or even on the street quickly become colleagues because of the immediate recognition of the conference connection.

5. I like being away from my office or away from home so that my attention is not pulled to the regular work/home activities. In the conference session, my email notification does not pop up, my phone does not ring (I’ve turned it off), no one comes to my office to take my attention away from the session.

6. I like nice hotels, great restaurants, and shopping away from home. A great conference site offers the opportunity for all of these.



Merits of the Virtual Conference:

1. I like the fact that I don’t have to miss a session that I really want to attend because it conflicts with another session or with my own presentation. Most virtual conferences have many, many asynchronous sessions and/or they record for later play-back any synchronous sessions. Also, presenters are very willing to leave extra handouts in an open area so that anyone interested may take them. (My complaint about the Innovations Conference: Innovations is using something called iStream to which you must pay a fee to subscribe in order to see the recorded conference sessions. The registration fee for this conference should include access to the achieved conference sessions and presentations.)

2. I like the fact that I have time to reflect before and again after “speaking”. Sometimes my best thoughts come sometime after the session is over. With the Virtual Conference, I can go back into the discussion and post any additional thoughts and reply to others who also might have posted again later.

3. I like the fact that I often get to know a little more about the real person through reading the personal blog or webpage. Surprising to me but much appreciated is the fact that folks tend to share a little more of themselves in the virtual world. (See Skip’s dog and Joyce’s pink house in their conference blogs.)

4. I like the fact that I don’t have to get up early to make that 8:00 a.m. session. Because of the asynchronous presentations/participation, I can drop in and out of the conference at my convenience.

5. I like the fact that I can replay/re-read sessions or parts of sessions. Sometimes tied to the "time to the reflect" merit but other times just because I want to hear it again, I can go back to a session that I really enjoyed or from which I want to get clarification or information.

6. I like the fact that I only have to go as far as my desktop or laptop to be in session. While I like to travel, there are real advantages to no packing (clothes get bigger when you pack to come home), no concern about plane connections or train schedules, no concern about what to wear to the conference banquet (is it really a “banquet” or just dinner with a speaker?), no need to get the receipts for reimbursement or to be concerned about how much of the per diem allowance is left for dinner.

As I think about what I like about the face-to-face conference, I ask myself which of these things can in some way be achieved in a virtual environment for conference or for instruction. There are a number of tools and design strategies that can be added to virtual settings to increase the engagement that I like. As we explore the use of more of the Web 2.0 tools and we look at the judicious use of synchronous connections, I think that we can get closer to feeling “real” in the virtual world.

I have enjoyed sharing my reflections with you this week. Hope to see you around (virtually or in person).

On the train ride home, I debated about sharing my observations about train travel in the mid-Atlantic corridor or genuine Maryland crab cakes. Well…

Riding in the hotel elevators during the conference, I participated in and/or overheard numerous conversations about the best places to find the best crab cakes. Obviously, I am not the only one who realized that you can only experience the gold standard crab cake in Maryland. I even talked with a lady from North Carolina (or Michigan or some other distance place) who had the foresight to bring a cooler so that she could take some of those gems home with her. I actually fought the urge to stop at Lexington Market on my way to the train station to bring a supply back to share with my friends and co-workers, but Baltimore is still just a very comfortable day-trip on the train.

Last Innovations Conference highlights:

“The essential difference between a successful and not successful online class is the faculty member.”

“Student outcomes are strongly affected by the quality of the faculty.”

“A bad[ly designed] online course with a great instructor is better than a great course with a bad instructor.”

These are statements made by Susan G. James and David A. Binder, the co-presenters of one of the Innovations Conference forum sessions on Tuesday. These presenters, experienced online instructors and researchers from Walden University, talked about the importance of faculty development for online faculty and about the need to use principles of adult learning theories to design and deliver effective training to faculty. James and Binder strongly believe that faculty need training in pedagogy (andragogy), not just how to use the technology. This resonated with me because that same concern was included in comments from the SACS’ QEP evaluation team.

Faculty development is essential, so essential that this topic is a part of the last Virtual Conference 2010 Around the Water Cooler conversation that begins on Thursday. Please participate in the short poll and then join the conversation and share your views on whether we need faculty prerequisites for online courses. (A second thread is whether there should be gate-keeping prerequisites for students.)

Also on Thursday, watch C.J. Bracken’s presentation on Teaching with Web 2.0 Tools and then join him to discuss ways to use these tools to improve student success.

If It Is Tuesday, This Must Be Baltimore

For any baseball fans, I have an awesome view of Camden Yards (home of the Orioles) from my hotel window.

A highlight of the day at the Innovations Conference was the opportunity to participate in a roundtable discussion led by Paloff and Pratt, authors of a number of books about online instruction. The discussion was really a discussion, not a presentation, and the people at the table asked really practical questions and shared real world experiences. The discussion focus was generally about alternative and authentic assessments in online courses. This discussion naturally moved to questions about how to handle cheating if testing is not proctored.

The experts suggested that we should not rely solely on tests and quizzes to assess student learning. These, particularly if multiple choice and true/false questions, are not necessarily a testing of learning but a test of memory. Assessments that require application, demonstrations, critiques, reflections, and other higher order thinking give better feedback about true student learning. With candor, all folks at the table acknowledged that building and grading these kinds of assessments require greater commitment of effort and time.

Pratt and Paloff recommend using rubrics. This helps students know what the instructor wants and makes grading easier and faster. They both often use a technique where they have the students to complete the rubric, explaining why they rate themselves as they do. This then is the basis for formative dialog between the instructor and student, especially where they do not agreed with the student’s assessment. For more information about using rubrics, join Evaluation Rubrics: Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning in the Virtual Conference 2010 and see Ghazala Hashmi’s explanation of rubrics and how they can be useful.

Another interesting point with which we all agreed at the table: No matter how you design the test (using timed test, lock down browser, randomized questions), consider any testing done at home to be an open book test. (I met the regional sales rep for Respondus and she was delighted to meet someone from the Virginia Community College System, a premiere Respondus client.)

We are now in the second week of the Virtual Conference 2010. While sharing information about many issues related to teaching and learning with technology, the Virtual Conference offers an introduction to Blackboard 9 from the student perspective. I hope that you are trying out some of the new features.

Have a great day!

This week I will be the conference blogger. It will be very difficult to follow Bev Aronowitz, who kept us informed and smiling with her witty and informative observations.


For part of this week, I will be attending the League for Innovations Conference 2010 in Baltimore. So some of my blogging early in the week will be about the Innovations Conference and my experiences in Baltimore.

When I arrived in Baltimore on Saturday, my first stop after checking in and picking up conference material was Lexington Market – an invigorating five block walk for those with good knees. My mission – to get a genuine Maryland crab cake. Mission was quickly accomplished with crab cakes from a vendor who for year years has achieved the distinction of having the best crab cakes in Baltimore. Wow!

The sessions that I  attended on Sunday were inspiring, informative, and affirming.

I started the day by attending this session: Professors Are From Mars, Students Are From Snickers: Humor and Multimedia as Teaching Tools by Ronald Berk, Professor of Biostatistics and Measurements, John Hopkins University.

This session’s focus was how to teach the students we have today. The lecture style through which most of us received instruction is not effective, actually is not well received by many of today’s college students. To be more effective we should match teaching strategies to student characteristics. Students have high interest in media (music, videos, movies, YouTube), they are image oriented, like teamwork, prefer kinesthetic/experiential learning, have multiple intelligences. Teaching strategies for this population of students could include incorporating media to introduce topics and in content presentations; using videos, TV, movies, and class demonstrations; planning cooperative learning activities, games, and improvisations; developing hands-on exercises; and tapping 4 -6 intelligences in class activities/presentations.

Ronald Berk’s descriptions and prescriptions matched many of those we discussed with Amanada Hartman in the synchronous Adobe Connect session on teaching Millenials. The presenter shared many examples of ways to use contemporary humor and media to get students’ attention and to get them engaged with the subject. This session, punctuated by frequent chuckles and some outright laughter, was a great way to start the conference day.

Three of the great benefits I get from attending conferences are the opportunities to learn new things, the chance to see how others are handling problems/goals similar to those we have at JSRCC, and the affirming experience of hearing that other colleges are using similar strategies to address some of the goals (and to find out that we are sometimes ahead of the pack and are doing it better). While attending sessions on the values of course redesign, developing online courses for use across the college, and engaging adjunct faculty, I found that JSRCC is on track and sometimes leading in the way as we are actively addressing these issues. I was particularly pleased at the way we are moving to actualize the vision of a dynamic, easily accessible resource for adjunct faculty. This was a theme in at least two conference sessions and one of the smaller campuses of St. Louis Community College presented their Virtual Center for Teaching and Learning - designed specifically for their adjunct faculty- that was developed using a model much like what we are moving to implement at JSRCC this fall.

Now to the Virtual Conference 2010.

a. If you feel tied to the standard objective assessments as the most efficient way to evaluate students’ work, join Evaluation Rubrics and learn more about how using rubrics can help you offer richer learning activities to your students without overloading you with grading papers.

b. Join the conversation Around the Water Cooler : Double Digit Growth in Enrollment in Online Classes and the “Creep to the Outer Limits on Class Size”.

c. At 2:00 p.m. or at 3:30 p.m. join a synchronous presentation featuring MyReadingLab and MyPsychLab technology. Even though your teaching area may not be Reading or Psychology, we encourage you to join one of these sessions to see what publishers are now offering. There is a critical question that textbook selection committees need to consider: Are the supplemental materials and interactive delivery actually worth the additional cost to the students?

Also join Eric to talk about Publishers’ Websites – Do they make students think or block thinking?
Back to Baltimore: The recommendation for the day is Mo’s Crab and Pasta Factory.

Enjoy the day!

Play it Again, Hoagy!

Sleuthing this Rubric Gig: What's Up Ghazala?

What's doin' Friday, March 26?

What's up with these millennials?

More Sleuthing for Blackboard 9

A Big Conference Day: Thursday, March 25

Yes, folks, come early.  The crowd is queing up for . . .

See the left-hand Conference Menu for Tutorials:  Click on  Denise Woetzel's Off-Campus Connections to Library Resources Workshop. 

Then you might swing on over to the Presentations menu link to find a connected discussion: An Information Literacy Module (Blackboard) for Distance English 111.

And  then . . .

Later in the day, from 3:00 to 4:00 tune into Amanda's synchronous discussion on  Teaching Millennials: Understanding and Reaching the Next Generation. Point your browser to http://reynolds.acrobat.com/hartman/

Amanda's E-Get-Together on Teaching the Millennials: Scheduled for Thursday, March 25

We're sleuthin' out these so-called "millennials." We're surfin' on down  to Amanda Hartman's e-discussion Thursday, March 25 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Adobe Connect.  Just point your browser to http://reynolds.acrobat.com/hartman/

More BB9 Sleuthing

Yup: That Ole' Rascal's at it Again!

Dr. Joy Hatch, Keynote Speaker: Blackboard 9 is all about Interactive Learning

Sleuthin' Around Blackboard 9: How's it Goin'?

Good plan to populate the Reynolds Virtual Conference in Blackboard 9--from the students' view. The look is professional and visually coherent, don't you agree? About two weeks ago, to experiment how one of my BB 8 spaces would look all dressed up as 9, I requested development space on the Explore server (where we are now) so that I could export a Blackboard 8 course. My BB8 was too dressed up for this svelte BB9: m'thinks my frills will be pared down to a minimalist style: no graffiti artists’ pics, no HipHop images from back in the day. Will I be comfortable in this glossy brand? Some might kvetch "too top down," but--hmmm-- I might be willin' to give up last decade's style for the up 'n comin' ?

Will BB9's new wardrobe keep us clothed with the invention, imagination, and spontaneity that generate those unexpected teachable moments-- those moments of student-centered learning?

Awake the Dead--and Make them Sing!

Your all-day, all-night reporter for the first week of The Reynolds’ Virtual Conference on Distance Learning is hereby resuscitated! Ain't the cyber world grand? Now, folks, what your trusty reporter really wants for her introduction--to wow ya--is to transform this image into an avatar. That is to say, I want to add my voice to this image using this text as the voice-over narration. In addition, the characters move their lips in sync (sort of) with my voice.


Joyce introduced me to a useful source at http://techntuit.pbworks.com/Avatars-In-Education. I played around with CrazyTalk, styling an icon from a menu of choices. I added my voice using my microphone/headset. Then I saved the file, which downloaded to RealPlayer (not my first choice). However, just my voice over was saved. How then to capture the image and voice?  And more importantly, how do I upload a completed avatar to, say, this posting?

Any gurus impromptu out there to give me some hints?

This failed experiment and greatly-wished for success to create really captivating avatars—not the crazy-talk kind-- is a request to our Reynolds’ technical gurus to plan a PDO. Hmmm?

Registration Open for the Virtual Conference!

Our free Virtual Conference registration is now open. 

The conference will begin March 22nd and run through April 2nd.  Remember, you can attend at your leisure and enjoy the tutorials, discussions, debates, and virtual field trips.  Don't miss this opportunity to mingle and share with your peers and learn something new.  You might win a prize!

We look forward to visiting with you at the Virtual Conference.

~~~The Center for Distance Learning~~~

Registration will soon be open!

We're making the last revisions to the JSRCC Virtual Conference schedule this week.

Watch your email for an invitation to register for this free, asynchronous conference. We all look forward to visiting with you a while in cyberspace, experiencing Blackboard 9 together, and learning something new.
 
Center for Distance Learning Staff

Virtual Conference Call for Proposals

The Center for Distance Learning at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College is hosting its sixth Virtual Conference--Teaching and Learning With Technology. While the conference will include sessions on a wide range of topics, of special interest will be sessions and presentations on connecting the current pedagogy/andragogy to helping students be successful in a technology-enhanced learning environment. Because the Virtual Conference will be delivered via the VCCS Blackboard course management system, conference participants will be able to explore Blackboard 9 before its official deployment in the Summer 2010.

Help to make this your conference! You can participate in many ways:

• Submit a draft paper or extended abstract for a refereed paper on which you would like colleague feedback and further discussion.

• Propose a tutorial, a step by step guide demonstrating how to use a technology tool or course material.

• Prepare a poster session in which you showcase a special use of technology in teaching or learning, showcase an effective assignment that engaged your students, or other learning activities and instructional strategies that have worked well for your classes.

• Suggest a speaker or topic. The topic need not be new or unique but should be connected to promoting/supporting student success in a technology-enhanced learning environment and be timely, relevant and, perhaps, entertaining.

• Submit a proposal for a workshop. Workshops are hands-on, participatory, interactive sessions where small groups have discussions ranging from highly detailed “how to” sessions to discussions of practical applications of current technologies and even futuristic discussions.

• Organize a Birds of a Feather session –BOF or Roundtable-. These may be discipline specific sessions to discuss the use of technology to improve teaching and learning in the discipline. This is an opportunity for colleagues to discuss the benefits and challenges of using technology to teach the discipline and to improve student success. Also, this is an invitation to those who are responsible for the administration of academic courses and programs to discuss the challenges in areas such as faculty evaluation, class size/workload/efficiency, recruiting, supporting, and supervising adjunct faculty.

• Organize or join a “Talking Circle” – The Talking Circle, a community-building communication strategy that has its roots in Native American culture, is an opportunity for a very small group of participants (3 -5) to engage in focused “listening” and sharing on topics of particular interest to individuals in the group. Anticipated outcomes for this experience are better understanding of the interests and points-of-view of colleagues, possible consensus on actions, or at least clarification of concerns and questions that need to be explored by the larger community and/or administrative leadership.

• Serve as conference recorder for a session. The recorder will post a short summary of the discussion at the end of the session.

• Lead a Sandbox Session. The sandbox is where you get to play with the technology, possibly exploring the use of new “free stuff” .

• Serve as a conference blogger during the first or second week of the conference. This blog will be a place where conference participants can have ongoing exchange about conference activities.

• Set up and moderate a topic or discipline specific blog.

• Join the conference Tweeters.

• Suggest vendors. Let us know contact information for your book publishers’ reps and others who might be interested in promoting their products and services to conference attendees.

• Email any ideas for the virtual conference to mmacbeth@reynolds.edu, or jmbarnes@reynolds.edu.

This conference continues to be successful only because of your active participation. To submit a proposal or to volunteer for other conference activities, submit the Call for Proposals form by February 23, 2010.