digital writing

2008-12-02T13:22:00.001-08:00

I took this course because I am convinced that writing is an important educational tool - one that is underused in pharmacy education. I think that I am not alone among my pharmacy colleagues in feeling a bit intimidated by the role of 'writing instructor' and this hesitation can be made worse by the addition of technology. In this course I have not only how to effectively apply digital writing to both the online courses that I teach, but also how to utilize them for my own collaborative needs with fellow faculty and students. I had heard of many of the technology tools discussed in this class, but had not taken the time to really test them out - which is why I hadn't incorporated most of them in the past. Two very valuable aspects of this course were experimenting with the tools for a variety of purposes and the interdisciplinary discussion around their use. I have found it very helpful to hear what other teachers have and are doing in their classes, and have really appreciated the feedback that I received from other students in the class - especially those with more experience than me in using writing as a tool.

The college of pharmacy has spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to incorporate e-portfolios into the curriculum. I do really see it's value - but the problems we are having at a college level is guiding students to use the portfolios effectively. We haven't worked that issue out, yet. We want students to include evidence of different experiences they have had which impact their ablity to practice as a pharmacist, but also evidence of growth and an understanding of where their career path is taking them. I would like to start keeping a portfolio myself - and I may have to start doing it very soon to maintain my pharmacy license. In the very near future, licensed health care professionals may have to demonstrate through a portfolio how they have managed to stay current in their area of practice.

Next semester I am incorporating many, many of the tools we discussed in this class - in fact, I may be overdoing it a bit. But...the truth is that I had some significant challenges which I learned how to address through this course. For example - I have students create a weekly summary of their small group online discussions. Each week there is a group leader who moderates the week's discussion and is also in charge of getting the summary created and submitted. There were some issues last offering about transparency related to student participation - and I knew that I needed to address this offering, but wasn't sure how. Well, this spring I will have the students create their weekly summary in a wiki. They can create it over the course of the week, in a very collaborative manner, and I can very easily see if all group members have contributed. I'm very excited that such a simple answer is available. The strange thing is that I have used wikis before for other things, but this use didn't occur to me until I took the course...I am also having student do an online role play for two of the week's discussion (two separate topics). I thought our experience with this tool was very helpful. I will use a threaded discussion - I think that will make it easier to follow the debate - but will otherwise pretty closely follow what we did in class. I'm also utilizing peer review of the final project (which is a hypertext document), and having students pair their section reflections with image and narration using VoiceThread. I think I've perhaps maximized the application of digital writing tools in one class!

Student Feedback

2008-11-25T15:51:00.000-08:00

This week we created a tool or mechanism for providing feedback to students. I'm having students pair section reflections with images in Voice Thread.

I'm excited to see what students create and I found it hard to create a rubric to judge quality of something I have not ever seen. I started by trying to image what the ideal version would look like and created this criteria.

1. Author finds images which convey the emotion of the section issues we discussed in class and provides description of personal tension

2. The images extend the viewer's understanding of the author's journey and human component of the issues discussed

3. Clear evidence that reflection was written first before images were implied

4. Image and narration are seamlessly blended

Interactive slides

2008-11-16T18:49:00.001-08:00

Video Creation

2008-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

Making the video was a lot of work, but mostly really fun. The hardest part for me was deciding what my movie would be. Since I couldn't seem to come up with a good short story of my own, I co-opted a line from the Princess Bride that is often quoted in my family. I'm sure Rob Reiner would be horrified to see my version. The time really got away from me and I ended up spending way too much time on it - considering the purpose was to get me used to using this technology, not compete for an Academy Award.

I use a PC, so was left to use Movie Maker - which is okay, but based on what I have seen and heard, is a very anemic version of imovie. I struggled for a long time trying to get the movie maker file into a format that could be imported into media mill. Then, I realized that if you clicked 'save move to computer' under the finish movie section of movie maker, it would save the file as a .wmv file, which can be played in media player and uploaded to media mill. Prior to this, I was just hitting the 'save' icon in the tool pane - but this saves the file as a .mov file which cannot be opened except in movie maker...

Once I figured this out, it was smooth sailing...

I can easily see incorporating this tool into a course. It is another way for students to argue a position, express a thought in ways that may not be possible or easy to convey in text only.

2008-11-11T13:31:00.001-08:00

Video assignment using movie maker

Interview podcast

2008-11-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

I interviewed my nine year old daughter, Sophie, on the election. It was interesting to use the interview format and I think that this would be an excellent assignment to use in class. I was thinking of during a role play - when people are assuming a different voice - of having two members of the online debate interviewed by a third 'neutral' party. It might be fun and educationally extending for students to play out that role in an interview in addition to the text based discussion.

Sophie takes on the voice of a very concerned citizen. She also qualifies her position by asserting her expertise (she is a Jr Park Ranger!)

I'm having a lot trouble getting blogger to take the enclosure link, so I'm uploading a 'video' that I created with the mp3 file in movie maker.

podcast

2008-10-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've created a podcast. Having gone through the tutorials and read the podcasting for dummies, I see all the potential for this tool.

The college of pharmacy has offered lectures as podcasts for students to listen to as a review or for the first time...I know that students have responded very favorably to this option.

I can see having students creating podcasts as an assignment - create a message which is then broadcast to the class. I think this would be a very interesting educational experience - especially if students went beyond just recording a voice.

I have only recorded my voice - mostly because I don't have any music downloaded, but the addition of other audio files would have made my podcast more interesting.

Online role play

2008-10-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed the online role play for a lot of reasons. One, it's a topic that intrests me and two, I hope to use this idea in my own online teaching. As a woman in a math/science career I worry about girls being sorted into a less rigorous track. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in general, I do not believe separate, but equal ever exists. When there are redundant systems, one will always receive priority, and I do not believe we have moved past a time of white, male dominance.

Interestingly, as one of the 'experts' in the online role play, I felt that I could not share a personal perspective. As the 'expert' I tried to throw around a bunch of 'evidence' and it seemed to work as a power play. No one really challenged me (what makes me an expert anyway?) or the evidence I cited. I guess I decided that the image of an expert was impersonal and objective only. When one of our 'school board members' said that she was persuaded by the emotional arguments, I really wondered why I didn't use my own story (although, we were supposed to be using a fictional persona...but I could have incorporated personal story somehow). But...one of the arguments that I made against the emotional position was that it was anecdotal and that the school board members shouldn't trust it.

In all, a very interesting experience and I do intend to use an online role play in my online course this spring.

What happened to my September 23rd post?

2008-10-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

For some reason, my September 23rd post is not on my blog - it is still on the Ning site, however...I've copied it here - without the concept map. Very strange...I wonder if I deleted it when I copied it for the forum Ning page.

For September 23rd discussion - using blogs for education.

Using Blogs for educational purposes...specifically, how to use blogs and other kinds of digital writing for assessment in large enrollment classes - this is my real question!

I'm including my concept map of my beginning project with this idea. I would love to find a way to use blogs, and other kinds of digital writing as an assessment tool - but there are challenges I'm not sure how to overcome.

The big challenge is the grading workload. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them!

I think there would have to be small groups - a number of smaller 'classroom' blogs. Maybe there could be multiple blog 'managers' - rotating, to spread the grading quirks around? So a classroom blog is potentially a positive and a negative feature, like Chapter 6 describes. I also worry about the other issue brought up in Chapter 6 - students simply fulfilling the class requirements and not self-initiating learning.

In my concept map, I suggest that using digital writing could result in more individualized and authentic assessment. I do think if students are allowed to choose a topic of personal interest, they are more motivated to go above and beyond what the course requires - stimulate some life=long learning!

I think there is potentially a good idea here, but am still working it out.

digital storytelling

2008-10-10T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well...I've created a story that I intend to use in my medications controversy course. I originally created my images in powerpoint, with a lot of clever (or so it seemed to me!) animations. But when I imported into VoiceThread, the animations did not work. So then I thought about using umconnect to record the audio, but decided that it just seemed to 'lecture-like'. So, I removed the animations in the powerpoint and reimported into voicethread.

It was interesting to think about introducing this course as a story - I liked the outcome and hope that it will create a sense of importance, relevance and excitement in the students who enroll.

I tried to use the 7 elements of digital storytelling to guide me. They were very helpful. I thought about my point of view, tried to ask a dramatic question (or two or three), use some emotion, and close the 'story' in a meaningful way.

As I stated before, for my final project I intend to develop an assignment where I ask my students in this course to use VoiceThread or some other tool to create digital stories to describe their 'journey' in this course. I require three reflection papers - one at the end of each section of the course. I believe asking students to provide images to accompany their words (and to read their words) will be a powerful and personal experience and will enhance their understanding of the complex issues we address in this class.

Here is the link to my story...http://voicethread.com/share/217453/

use of Wiki for the classroom

2008-10-06T10:10:00.001-07:00

I have used wikis for probably two years as a collaborative writing tool - when a group of us are trying to put together a presentation, handout, that sort of thing. I have found that it works really well and the organization tools within PB wiki are especially nice.

Prior to this year, I had used the U of M wiki's - PB wiki seems to be a lot easier to use. Maybe there are things I can do within the U's wiki system that I can't do within PB wiki, but I have yet to discover what it might be.

For the group project that I am currently using a wiki for, we are charged with analyzing a policy using a specific methodology and present it to the larger class. Our wiki is organized this way

folder for the presentation structure
folder for questions we are posing to ourselves and will want to pose the class
folder for the policy itself
folder for brainstorming - really, just including random thoughts that we may or may not end up incorporating into the final project

Within each of these folders are pages that include our individual contributions. I'm sure by the time we are finished, there will be additional folders. I love the side bar within PB wiki - it's so convenient and easy to locate information. I also really love the comment boxes at the end of each page within the folders, too. It's great to communicate as a group this way.

I can see using wikis as a way to track a students revisions on a project - perhaps mandating that each revision be a new page within a folder. As a non-writing person, I have nonetheless been convinced that the key to good writing is revision. This structure would not only document the students efforts and progress, but demonstrated to the student the value of revision.

Another collaborative writing tool that I have used with great success is http://buzzword.acrobat.com/ It is not unlike googledocs.

VoiceThread

2008-09-28T12:57:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to complete my VoiceThread assignment. I've successfully created my slideshow in Flickr using personal pictures. I decided to complete a small autobiographical slide show of recent vacations with my family and also include a few photos of family pets.

My husband is the photographer in the family and the first thing I discovered is that I don't really know where all of our photos are house - or, perhaps I just don't understand his organization scheme. In anycase, I was not able to find everything I wanted, or that many photos of my parents...but there is enough to complete this assignment.

I have found Flickr to be simple to use on one level - very easy to open an account, upload photos, search for photos, etc. But it's been a little more difficult to arrange photos within the slide show itself. My options seem really limited - arrange by date taken, but date uploaded - I want to manually arrange! Likely there is a way to do this, but I can't figure out how. The chapter in the "Dummies" book seems to provide help for altering individual photos only, so my slide show is a little out of order. Fortunately, it's really easy to arrange photos in VoiceThread, so in the end it didn't matter.

I chose these photos because they represent some recent happy times and important people (and animals) in my life.

Okay - as you can see, I can't seem to get Flickr to grab my slide show...I think it may have something to do with my security settings, but I have changed everything I can think of to public and it still isn't working...arrgghh. I'm going to keep working on it - if anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, please tell me!! Once I can figure out how to fix this issue, I can definitely see using this tool for the courses I teach - at least as an alternative to umconnect for students in my courses.

Here is the URL to my VoiceThread

http://voicethread.com/share/204487/

I look forward to seeing and listening (or reading) everyone's assignment on Tuesday.

North Dakota Sun

2008-09-16T15:23:00.001-07:00

North Dakota Sun
Originally uploaded by mocr

information literacy

2008-09-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

This week in class we are focusing on information literacy and our personal experience with navigating the convoluted path to finding reliable and relevant information.

I use some specialized information sources. As a pharmacist I have access to databases such as Micromedex that are helpful for quick, factual information (for example - how is this drug eliminated from the body) and tend to rely on Medline for primary and secondary sources of literature.

I subscribe to Medscape, which provides me with alerts, usually on a weekly basis, of medical information being published in my area of interest. This is an efficient way for me to keep up to date on journals that I do not look at specially. There are a few journals to which I subscribe and look at the table of contents weekly.

I tend to rely on peer-reviewed medical journals for my source of information and trust, to some extent, on the review process to vet out any issues. That doesn't mean that I accept it absolutely, but I am reassured by the peer review process in 'some' journals. Not all journals are the same, which we all know.

When I'm looking for information about other topics (i.e. not medically related) I do use the '5 point method' (accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage) for reviewing websites for reliability and teach this to my students as well. Knowing a sources point of view (if there is one admitted) is very helpful. I do listen almost exclusively to npr/mpr and watch the News Hour as my source of 'news'.

I especially tell my non-pharmacy students that when assessing drug information online, be wary of any site that is selling anything. Public service sites are the best starting points, such as MayoClinic. com. The biomedical library has a great tutorial that I have my medical controversy students view on evaluating drug information - there is a nice collection of handouts and guides, which can be found at http://www.biomed.lib.umn.edu/inst/lcclasshandout.html

This page on the biomedical library contains similar information to the Alan November site provided on the Ning site.

switching to blogger

2008-09-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

I'm having nothing but problems with Uthink - I'm jumping ship...