Produsage Lesson

When designing the produsage lesson, I really wanted to combine experience from my past as a teacher to my possible future as an ID for higher education. The one thing that was very different for me was the use of an online forum in a lesson.

Looking back, I wish I had an opportunity in my past teaching high school to utilize online forums, because I think I could have used it to develop my students' writing skills.

InstructureCon Topics: Educator Buy-In

The above topic was not a formal topic of a session, but it came up in several of my sessions. How can ID's and technologists garner educator buy-in to addition technology to the classroom? As we were sitting in on a session covering good instructional design for the higher education classroom, one woman tepidly raised her hand to ask this very question.

Of all the answers suggested, the consensus was that the best solution is to offer professional development that allows educators to use and sample educational software prior to pressuring them into using it. This blog offers a good list of reasons for teachers not using technology.

InstructureCon Topics: LTI's

LTI stands for learning tools interoperability, and without LTIs, learning management systems like Canvas aren't much fun. Among many of the available LTIs, the most frequently used ones I've seen in my work as an instructional technologist are for testing purposes (like Respondus Lockdown Browser), plagiarism checking (like Turnitin), and textbook software.

The tricky thing about LTIs is finding the one that works best for your organization. I named a few above, but for each type of LTI there are many different products from which to choose. Eduapps provides and extensive list of LTIs and descriptions that can help guide potential describers to the best tools for their organization.

What are some LTIs you have used as a teacher or student? Do you have a favorite LTI?

InstructureCon

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting InstructureCon in Keystone, Colorado. Over the course of three days, I attended several sessions on instructional technology and instructional design in education. Each morning and afternoon session was preceded by a keynote speaker, and session topics ranged from improvements to the Canvas LMS, to K-12, to higher education.

It took me a day to acclimate to the mountain air, but after that, I really enjoyed myself at the conference. The sessions were all informative and relevant to my professional practice, and the evening activities were a lot of fun. I hope I can return again next year!

Educational Uses of Google Maps

When the topic of Google Maps came up in our course, I was very excited. Not only do I use Google Maps on a day to day basis to get from point A to point B, but I like to check out new places I've never been using their satellite and street views.

One of the more interesting uses I've seen of Google Maps is the GeoGuessr game. The object of the game is to guess where in the world the street view with which you have been presented is located. To the right of the street view is a map where you can choose your guessed location. Players are rewarded points based on the accuracy of their guess.

In the shot below, I looked around the street view and noticed Spanish writing on a building on the side of the road.

Based on the information above, I guess the location is in Mexico.

I was correct! Players are rewarded based on the accuracy of their choice within miles.

Is this a game you would like to play or have played? In what kind of class would you implement a game like this?

Educational Social Media in K-12

As a former high school English teacher, the topic of educational social media in the classroom is one that is very near and dear to my heart. I define "educational social media" as this which allows for an environment similar to social media, but is still teacher-controlled. My last year teaching was 2016, which of course, saw social media in full swing for younger people. In my classroom, the closest I'd gotten to utilizing social media was with Edmodo in 2012-2014, then Google Classroom in 2015-2016.

When I started using Edmodo, I was surprised by its similarity to Facebook (or, as my students referred to Edmodo, "lame Facebook".) I taught twelfth grade English and, while I initially had some apprehension, I found the tool to be really easy to use. I had over 150 students, and it was very difficult to keep track of who was absent from class, when they returned, or what they missed. I made a habit of posting class activities and notes to our Edmodo page to keep those students in the loop. Since I had all senior students, I could depend that they either had a smart phone or computer/laptop where they could keep up with class assignments and notes. I had a similar experience with my high school freshmen using Google Classroom.

There were a few pitfalls to using educational social media. One was that I quickly learned I had to disable comments in some areas of the course. One or two students would respond to assignments with legitimate thoughts and questions, while others would respond to those questions to mock those students, or intentionally give them false information. The other issue were the small instances of students who said they didn't have access to the internet at certain times, although fortunately there were never cases of prolonged disconnection. A final issue that I noticed went away over time, was of a lacking computer literacy for some of my students, which seemed less prominent in my later years teaching.

Have you ever used educational social media as a student or teacher? What was your experience?

Amazon's New Shopping Social Network

On July 19, Amazon announced the launch of their social media platform, Spark. Spark, which is described as, "...just like popular social media platforms Instagram and Pinterest," will allow the online retailer's Prime members to download a mobile application on Apple's iOS. The idea is that these Prime members will be able to post and share stories about products purchased from the site and their experiences, and be able to purchase those products when viewing other's posts.

This will be quite a creative move for Amazon that will undoubtedly increase their sales. Instagram has already been used for quite some time for advertising. Follow any celebrity or Instagram model long enough, and you're bound to see them hawking any number of products. However, until Spark came along, there was always that pesky matter of having to leave Instagram, create a new shopper profile on a new site, share your payment information, etc. It was just enough work to make you reconsider whether or not you really needed to buy more lipstick -even if it's branded as a "lip kit" (eyeroll).

Those more disenchanted with the increasing consumerism of the world probably won't take kindly to Spark, but I, for one, plan to at least try it out. Do you think Amazon Spark has the potential for success?

Knowledge Sharing Project

An upcoming project in our EME6414 course involves the sharing of a curated list of knowledge and tracking the sharing of it. I've decided to share knowledge about interpreting autosomal testing results like those from Ancestry DNA and 23 and Me in a playlist I've put together that begins with an instructional video I've created. Please take a look and tell me what you think:

Have you ever had your DNA tested for commercial or medical purposes? What was your experience? What did you learn from DNA testing?

Why should I use Pinterest?

One of the tools we've reviewed in EME 6414 is Pinterest. Having downloaded the app and joined years ago, I must admit, I'm still a bit flummoxed as to why I should use Pinterest. I kind of get it. It's a fun place to "pin" your activities and interests -much in the way you would a physical pinning board.

The most use I got out of Pinterest was when I was planning my wedding. There were several neat ideas for destination weddings that I could keep in one place, but other than that, I haven't gotten much out of the site. So, today, I'm determined to find out why so many others value this popular app.

This list of 6 reasons for using Pinterest posted on Cision lead me to a few more reasons to use the app. Reason #2 coincides with my personal reason for using the site: for inspiration. Reason #1 is related to our course topic for the week: as an internet bookmarker. The other four reasons were a little more flimsy in my opinion, but I'll let you be the judge of Pinterest's worth.

Do you use Pinterest? If so, please tell me why!

Has technology given rise to plagiarism in schools?

When I was in the 5th grade, I remember being given an assignment to research a notable person in history. Having a particular interest in notable women in history, I decided to cover the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. I went to the library with my father and checked out a book on Nightingale to use for my report. Our teacher told us not to copy, word for word, from any source, so I was sure to copy only a few words and get creative with synonyms. A few years later in the 7th grade, I was given a similar assignment and turned in the same Florence Nightingale research paper.


If I'd submitted the same essay today using a service like Turnitin, I would have gotten in trouble for my first and second submissions. I attended a great middle school, but the times, being what they were, made it difficult for teachers to investigate instances of possible plagiarism. Interestingly, some have perceived the addition of technology to the educational mix as the cause for an increase in plagiarism, as discussed in this Huff Post article from 2011.

As I reflected upon my own plagiarism as a middle school student, I have to question whether or not plagiarism has truly increased or if it has gone undetected for a long time. While technology and access to information certainly makes plagiarism easier, one could argue that if a student has the desire to cheat, he or she will go about it in any way they can. Also, while it may be easier to cheat, it is also easier for teachers to detect cheating.

I've worked in schools that didn't have programs like Turnitin, but was still able to pinpoint cheating by typing in a few lines of a student's essay into Google. In one instance, I discovered plagiarism when the lines I typed into Google returned lines from the physical book from which the student copied. When I spoke to him about it, he admitted he thought he was "safe" because he copied from a "real" book and not a website!

What is your opinion on the current prevalence of plagiarism in K-12 and higher education? Have things gotten better or worse?

Open Educational Resources: What are the pitfalls?

The use of open educational resources (OERs) is undoubtedly more beneficial than harmful for us all,  but for a moment I'll play devil's advocate and examine the pitfalls. Recently, McHenry County College announced it will move to using OERs and away from textbooks. While college students at MCC are likely breathing a sigh of relief, some of their faculty may not be pleased with this recent decision.

While obtaining my undergraduate degree, I took a speech and hearing disorder course taught by an expert in the field. We were required to purchase a textbook for about $70, which wasn't available used, and just happened to be written by our professor. Given that our lecture hall held about 150 students in just one of his classes, the book sale seemed like quite a racket. However, the book was very informative, well written, and our professor assured us it was one of the best available on the topic.

While the ethics of requiring students to purchase your textbook are debatable, limiting teacher choice by only using OERs is concerning. If my alma mater moved to using only OERs, should my professor have to give the materials he's worked on away for free? How difficult is it to find OERs on special topics? You'd be hard-pressed to find a broke college student who is sympathetic of a textbook company, but any losses they have in sales will likely mean cutting sales a production jobs.

Overall, I feel the benefits of using OERs outweigh the pitfalls, but it is important to consider these potential issues. What can be done to alleviate these possible problems?

Curating Your Life on Social Media

One of our course topics for the week involves the purposeful curation of online content through tools like Pinterest and Storify. One other briefly touched-upon curation tool is the hashtag. The evolution of the hashtag is touched upon here, and many of us are already familiar with its usage.

On Twitter, I've searched hashtags to read live-Tweets about current events. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have also implemented the hashtag, allowing users to review and connect by sharing their thoughts, photos, and videos on hash tagged topics.

On a personal scale, I used a hashtag for my Las Vegas wedding two years ago. My husband and I had about 30 guests, and we were interested to see their pictures of our event and their visit around Las Vegas. With this in mind, we asked guests to post their public photos to Instagram using the hashtag #colleenandfief. After returning home from our wedding, we were delighted to see everyone's contribution to our curated hashtag wedding gallery.

Redditing

Believing it to be full of trolls and serial killers, I'd steered clear of Reddit for quite some time. Then, as I was watching the HBO show The Leftovers in December 2015, I'd lamented that I did not know one other person who'd watched the show to discuss various theories. Even my husband left me alone to watch "that weird show," making the title much more ironic in my case.

I searched Google terms along the lines of "The Leftovers theories" and wound up on a Reddit forum, or Subreddit. I created an account to ask my own questions, and from that moment on, I was addicted.

Based on this article discussing changes made to Reddit earlier in 2015, it turns out I wasn't that far off in my initial assessment of Reddit. There are still dark places on the site that have white supremacy and sexist Subreddits, to name a few, but as a user, I like that I can subscribe to my Subreddits which appeal to me. My chosen Subreddits consist of positive content, like uplifting news or the aptly named, WholesomeMemes. I also follow a few health-related Subreddits that have made it nice to commiserate anonymously with fellow sufferers, without broadcasting all my problems.

One of my favorite interactions with the site have been my submission to a Photoshop request Subreddit. I submitted a picture of my dog standing on his hind legs, and I was not disappointed by the submissions.

On LinkedIn, Employers Look for You!

Same.

While covering LinkedIn this week in class, I got to wondering, how has this social media platform for professionals changed the world of work? The Washington Post explored such changes in this article from 2013, about talent hunting. Among other things, LinkedIn has allowed for talent poaching.

While this sounds like there is a certain amount of sketchy ethics as play, talent poaching could prove beneficial to workers. A more passive form of job application (in that you aren't actively looking for another job) you could be offered the job of your dreams after doing little more than creating a profile on the network.

While this kind of hands-off approach to the drudgery of looking for a new job is appealing to lazy people like me, it raises a few concerns. While I've tried to present my best self on LinkedIn for all to see, I don't like the idea of a possible job prospect judging me based on my profile and personal professional connections. I could submit an application and cover-letter that has the potential to wow a future employer rather than my generic LinkedIn page because I have the ability to write something that will appeal to that employer, for that particular job. It's a bit like having your blind date show up an hour early to find you with no makeup in a pair of holey stretch pants.

What are some additional pros and cons of LinkedIn?

Snapchat for Business: What can we learn from DJ Khaled?

One of the new tools we're utilizing this week in my class at FSU is Snapchat. In our class discussion, it brought to mind the recent career revitalization brought to DJ Khaled, an artist who saw his fame previously peak in the late aughts. After a jet skiing mishap, Khaled took to Snapchatting the experience which increased his number of followers and re-catapulted him into fame. More details on his experience are discussed in this article from Business Insider.

Regardless of whether or not you're a fan of his music, Khaled managed to tap into a younger fan base using a somewhat novel approach of the power of positive living. While his hip-hop contemporaries were sharing risque Snaps with scantily clad women and bottles of champagne in mansions, Khaled was cultivating a congregation of followers who liked his "major key" life advice, appreciation for his blessings, and mostly mundane existence through every day acts of watering his plants and trying to lose weight on a treadmill. Khaled found a way to project this image of a "rich every man" us ordinary people tend to appreciate among the elite.

In the business world, other brands have experimented with Snapchat as well, such as McDonalds, Taco Bell, and others mentioned in this Fast Company article. Of particular interest is the fact that many of these companies realized they would do better with a famous Snapchat representative, rather than just Snapping pics of their products.

The success of Snapchat in business has made me wonder: Does Snapchat have a place in education? If so, what is it?

Crowdfunding

While reading the story of Peter and Trudy's experience with crowdfunding in Rainie and Wellman's (2012) text Networked: The New Social Operating System, I was reminded of a comment I'd seen on Reddit:

While there is much one could say about the political implications described above of crowdfunding medically-related issues, the phenomenon has also spread to other funding needs, as well.

Arts crowdfunding has been apparent through operations like a personal favorite of mine, the Super Troopers 2 movie campaign. Inventions have also been crowdfunded, like one from a boy in Texas who created a device to stop babies from dying in hot cars. Crowdfunding has also been used for educational needs, and I have a few former colleagues who went to Kickstarter to fund classroom libraries. Social media has indeed helped crowdfunding campaigns find needed donors, as each person shares a campaign to their friends who also share that campaign.

There's no doubt that crowdfunding has made fundraising easier, but has it made our society better? While many campaigns are for worthy causes, like any other area of finance, crowdfunding can be prone to scam artists, like these highlighted in Consumer Reports. There have also been questionable funding campaigns in the past for people who were seen as less-than-deserving of sympathy, much less the public's money.

What are your feelings about crowdfunding? What do you think the future holds for crowdfunding and the average citizen?

Chromebooks for Education

In my final year teaching high school English, we were preparing to start using Google Chromebooks with students the following school year. We attended training on the use of the tools available within Google's suite for educational purposes, and many students and teachers were excited. Since I wasn't there to see the Chromebooks implement, I've wondered since how well the implementation went for students and teachers.

There were a few huge benefits to adopting the Chromebooks. The district hoped that we could save on purchasing physical textbooks. Teachers would no longer have to haul around books for students to read and students wouldn't be bombarded with numerous text to carry. Without these heavy books to carry, teachers hoped more students would bring their Chromebooks to and from school, as many were reluctant to track and carry several books at once. There is also the benefit of more recent updates to text materials, rather than waiting for 5-10 year adoptions to take place.

The district also saw it as beneficial to adopt the Chromebooks as the state of Florida's high stakes testing had all moved online. School administrators reasoned that students would just be able to use their Chromebooks.

If any of you reading this works in a district that has adopted Chromebooks or other laptops, what has been the overall experience of them? Has the experience made the technology worth its cost?

Educational Tweets

When I learned Dr. Dennen wanted us to use a Twitter account for school purposes, I was a bit surprised. Given recent political happenings in the U.S., I've been a bit leery of going on Twitter at all anymore. As of late, there's been a minefield of personal attacks and hurt feelings on Twitter, and I've not felt up to being audience to it. I figured, I am only to blame for these negative Twitter feelings because the content I see is a result of who I've chosen to follow. I kept my personal account, and decided to open a professional account for a fresh start.

At the moment, most of the accounts I follow were automatically generated by Twitter, based on my interests (which were all professionally related on this account). Oddly, even though I set my preferences, I still see half a feed of controversial posts not related to the professional/educational interests I've expressed.

How is this still possible? Has Twitter become an inherently toxic place? What is it about the format of Twitter that allows this, compared to Instagram, for example?