For my online course, Pre-Calculus 30 with Mr. Johns, which is hosted on a Google Site, I have decided to use Google Classroom for students handing in assignments and having the ability to comment, Google Chat for students to discuss any math topics and to get specific help from myself or peers, and through Chat having students interact on Jamboard to receive help from me or students on specific math problems and graphing. Students may also choose to talk to me in person or through daily Google Meets (as it is designed as a Hyflex course) or by email or phone. I am now teaching the course in school and although I am not allowed to live stream lessons I am using all of the other platforms besides Google Meets. So I have had some time to experiment with the interaction methods I chose for the course. The one type of interaction which I have not encompassed is video recorded responses by students or myself but this has been on my mind, as I used this strategy consistently during supplemental learning. My frustration during supplemental learning was having to record math help videos on my phone on a home-made document camera, then edit them if necessary and upload them to YouTube to share with students. This was time-consuming and frustrating to say the least. Students would submit video quizzes through Google Classroom with a similar method I just described and it worked well, as they really only did one video every week or two. I however was doing 5 to 15 of them a day! I have now learned many platforms that would work better to record and edit to automatically put videos to drive and share them, such as ScreenCastify or WeVideo. In conjunction, with a document camera or Jamboard it would now be much easier to interact with students through video, even live using a Google Meet!
The methods I described in the introduction of this post of interacting with students was formulated really to try and help students in math, for the hybrid model, when they are at home and stuck. They can post their issue on Chat and Jamboard and myself and / or a peer can help them. I think it is a good idea, but most students only reach out for help in person at this point. I even tried engaging them on Chat with other prompts and interesting math topics but the interaction has been limited. I think I might have to create online "office hours" using Google Meet to try and interact with students at home, but I really cannot find the time for this unless it is during class time which is reasonably filled with in-person help! I chose the Google platforms as I am familiar with them, they work well on all devices and our division provides technical support for them. So they may not be the best, but I know them, they work and I will hopefully not have to deal with to many issues! I only verbally discussed expectations for online interactions with students, but wanted to make them aware this is for school and thus should be school appropriate and generally positive! To be honest, I think that I am really out of my element in this realm as I to prefer not to interact much online at all. I just signed up for a Twitter account, and have never typed into a forum unless required by a class. Given the option to post on a forum or messaging or discuss with a human in person, I would choose in-person 99% of the time. I will text and email but that is about it. That said, I do really like the Zoom classes for University and find them nearly as engaging as in-classroom learning. So I am good with computers, keen on online learning but really seem to be lacking in the interaction ideals for a good online course! It is really something I should try more to judge properly and so if nothing else I will commit to that; try Twitter some, chat on Discord and maybe even post a Tweet or three (ECI 834 has opened my horizons...) in hopes that I can translate this to student interaction for an online class in the future! Thanks for reading. Blog prompt: What forms of student/student-instructor interactions have you implemented/do you plan to implement in your course prototype (e.g. LMS forums, chats rooms, Flipgrid, blog comments/pingbacks, hashtags, Google Classroom, etc.)? What justification can you provide for choosing these forms of student interaction? What guidelines or assessment practices will you adopt to ensure that interactions are meaningful, supportive, and relevant? 3/13/2021 10:31:22 am
I love your honesty when you reflect. I think your comment on being someone who does not like to contribute in an online world is important. When we plan we need to realize that there are students that feel the same as us and there are others who are the complete opposite. That is what makes planning so difficult but yet exciting. Trying to find as many avenues for sharing as possible to meet the various needs of students becomes quite challenging, but it also forces us to dig deeper and that is where a class such as this one is so important. You mentioned doing things a certain way during supplemental learning and now realizing there are far better ways that the same tasks could have been accomplished. Collaboration can help us grow and become better and that is a powerful opportunity we always need to strive to provide for our students. Great post Dylan!
Dylan Johns
3/15/2021 02:29:15 pm
Great point Devin, about students feeling the same and planning accordingly, using my weakness as a tool! Thanks for the comment.
Gerod Wiens
3/14/2021 07:45:03 am
Dylan, your honesty in your blog post this week is appreciated. I think we have all had moments of frustration and second guessing ourselves while connecting and teaching students online the last year. We all have different strengths but the fact that you have recognized your weakness and still continued to forge on and learn new ways, is a strength.
Daniel D.
3/14/2021 10:02:49 am
Dylan, like you I also prefer not to interact too much online as its produces a high degree of anxiety by thoughts that I'm being constantly judged by the world. For me, I want to provide the opportunity for my students to engage and collaborated without the pressure associated with techniques like group projects and commenting on other kids work. Students can be very vulnerable when being engages publicly with their peers and I think it's very important to keep that in mind when designing and implementing online and blended learning courses. Thanks for the excellent post.
Dylan
3/15/2021 02:30:06 pm
Thanks for the comment, glad to have a kindred spirit!
Dylan, I also appreciate your honesty and I bet that your students appreciate it as well. Online interactions can be confusing, and misinterpreted easily. I find too, that sometimes what I could say in a few words orally, I find myself over typing to ensure that it is understood in the way that I intended it to.
Dylan
3/15/2021 02:31:27 pm
Thank you very much Kelly, good pedagogy is so important and change for the sake of change is not always good, despite the modern worldview that it is! I appreciate your insights and compliments. Comments are closed.
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