Category: OTL201

201 Post 6

skarsten Leave a comment

Additional Learning Activities…

I’ve been doing some research around the academic ‘vlogging’ community. Some videos present helpful tips on how to set up a shot, format for camera, etc.

Others like this one by Mike Rugnetta incorporate flashy animation and editing.

This video by Jacob Clifford provides an example of a video coupled with slideshow text.

Here’s a longer one that starts off conversationally/jovially and then moves into lesson material.

Travel Vlogging sites provide additional ideas. Here entertainment value seems often to trump insight value, but cool to see what this culture has produced in the way of a forum or medum, and to understand something about the power of place in video storytelling.

201 Post 5

skarsten Leave a comment

What are the 2-3 most important concepts that have impacted your thoughts on student engagement and retention during this course?

This course has taught me about the importance of multi-modal communication in online learning environments. Combining text and video, for instance, can allow students to engage with a particular lesson or theme on multiple levels, thereby deepening their engagement and interest. I’ve also gained an appreciation for the pedagogical value to be found in an instructor’s projection of the ‘self’, or a version of it, into online environments. Such a projection holds the potential, it seems, to humanize an environment that might otherwise appear as lacking in human connection.

I believe a good strategy, or goal, would be for me to post ‘reflection’ videos in response to major themes or lessons delivered. These might provide a humanistic ‘anchor-point’, or ‘connect-point’ for students feeling un-invested in the content, or simply wanting to engage on a deeper level. I also believe it important to continuously invite student dialogue and participation, and to offer assistance and support as needed.

Questions and Strategy:

Moving forward – I would like to investigate the work of online instructors who have really nailed their videos. What tools do they use to make the videos engaging, connect their videos to the course content, etc. What balance do they strike in developing both a cinematically interesting and pedagogically rich platform? Over the next few months, I plan to seek out a series of stellar online instructional videos and analyze them for content, style, pedagogy, linkages and effect.

201 Post 2

skarsten Leave a comment

Describe the ways in which your introductory post should have enhanced social presence in a course that you teach,

Identify at least one improvement that you might make in light of what you know about social presence since completing your first post, and

Describe how your thinking about social presence has changed since your first post.

Understanding social interaction as a key constitutive element of learning brings urgency to the task of ‘humanizing’ one’s self as an instructor. Through humor, vulnerability, etc., students benefit from a process of meaning making that allows learning to become deeply rooted and dialogic – part of one’s identity.

Moving forward, I see the need to make additional efforts, especially when welcoming new students to a course (but also throughout), to cultivate a socially safe environment rooted in humanistic expressions of connection and communication.

 

201 Post 1

skarsten Leave a comment

 

Okay – here I am, looking moody and contemplative:)

Some things you should know about me:

1. I’m a newbie gardener. Big city girl moves to small island and tries her hand (sometimes with success and at other times failing miserably) at veggie farming. Check it out:

 

2. One of my favourite poems: the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T.S. Elliot. Here I recite a taster…

 

3. I have two children. Here is one. She’s proud of her piano skills, and is showing off by filming herself turbo-speed – haha!