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Fall EdTEch Book Club 2021

Ari Crossby

This fall, the EdTech Book Club will read and discuss The Manifesto for Teaching Online by Siân Bayne, Peter Evans, Rory Ewins, Jeremy Knox, James Lamb, Hamish Macleod, Clara O’Shea, Jen Ross, Philippa Sheail and Christine Sinclair.

This book is an update to a provocative manifesto intended to serve as a platform for debate and as a resource and inspiration for those teaching in online environments. In 2011, a group of scholars associated with the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh released “A Manifesto for Teaching Online,” a series of provocative statements intended to articulate their pedagogical philosophy. In the original manifesto and a 2016 update, the authors counter both the “impoverished” vision of education being advanced by corporate and governmental edtech and higher education’s traditional view of online students and teachers as second-class citizens. The two versions of the manifesto were much discussed, shared, and debated. In this book, the authors have expanded the text of the 2016 manifesto, revealing the sources and larger arguments behind the abbreviated provocations.

Join us for discussions on The Manifesto for Teaching Online. We will reflect on our practices as users of educational technology, question assumptions and consider new ideas.

We will meet on Tuesdays, from 4:30 – 5:30, from September 21st – November 16th (for 9 weeks). We will be experimenting with a hybrid model; you can join us online and/or in person in the TCDC/ETech space (cookies and coffee/tea available).

Please note: While we encourage participants to sign up for the duration, if you wish to attend only one or two sessions, please contact us at tcdc@langara.ca to get the Zoom link and meeting details.

Unlimited e-book access and limited hard copies of the book are available through the Langara library. The book is also available for purchase via Book Warehouse, Chapters, and Amazon.

The EdTech Book Club is a supportive environment in which to share ideas, pose questions, and learn about effective online teaching practices, EdTech theory, and hands-on online tools.

 

Podcast Playlist – Podcast recommendations from your Ed Tech team

Ari Crossby

Looking for inspiration? Podcasts are a convenient and approachable way to pick up some new tools for your teaching toolkit. In this new feature, we’ll share a few of our favorite episodes with a teaching and learning focus.

Maybe It Doesn’t Need to be a Video

In this episode of Think UDL Clea and host Lillian Nave talk about multiple ways of representing information in online classes, customizing the display of information, offering alternatives for text or auditory information, and guiding information processing and visualization for students

In this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Dan Levy, faculty director of the Public Leadership Credential, the Harvard Kennedy School’s flagship online learning initiative, talks about his book, Teaching Effectively with Zoom.

Talking Tech

In this episode of tea for teaching Michelle Miller, author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology, examines how we can talk to students about technology in ways that will help them become more efficient in their learning and professional lives.

How to Use Audio Lessons in Your Course to Engage Students and Improve Learning

In this episode of Lecture Breakers Yehoshua Zlotogorski the power of audio for learning, especially when the audio lesson or audio course is intentionally designed based on cognitive science and pedagogy.

Equity-Enhancing Data Tools

In this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed Viji Sathy, award-winning Professor of the Practice in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Kelly Hogan, Teaching Professor of Biology and Associate Dean of Instructional Innovation at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, share two equity-enhancing data tools.

Podcast Playlist

Ari Crossby

""Podcast recommendations from your Ed Tech and TCDC team

Looking for inspiration? Podcasts are a convenient and approachable way to pick up some new tools for your teaching toolkit. In this new feature, we’ll share a few of our favorite shows with a teaching and learning focus.

Trends and Issues in Instructional Design, Educational Technology and Learning Science is a bi-monthly podcast presented by Abbie Brown (East Carolina University) and Tim Green (California State University). Episodes are short at around 10-15 minutes and cover news on a wide range of topics connected to technology enhanced learning. Accompanying the podcast is a Flipboard magazine.

Hosted by Thomas Cavanagh and Kelvin Thompson, the monthly The Teaching Online Podcast focuses on issues related to online and blended learning. Episodes clock in at about 30 minutes. Recent topics explored in the show include OER adoption, blended learning course design, community engagement, and the role of synchronous online teaching post-COVID.

ThinkUDL host Lillian Nave interviews guests about their experiences implementing Universal Design for Learning. Recent guests include Kirsten Behling, co-author of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, Flower Darby, co-author of Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, and Kevin Kelly and Todd Zakrajsek, authors of Advancing Online Teaching: Creating Equity-Based Digital Learning Environments.

 

Summer EdTech Book Club: Intentional Tech

Ari Crossby
Join the EdTech Online Book Club as we read and discuss Derek Bruff’s:
Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching.

“Arguing that teaching and learning goals should drive instructors’ technology use, not the other way around, Intentional Tech explores seven research-based principles for matching technology to pedagogy. Through stories of instructors who creatively and effectively use educational technology, author Derek Bruff approaches technology not by asking ‘How to?’ but by posing a more fundamental question: ‘Why?’ “

The EdTech Book Club is a supportive environment in which to share ideas, pose questions, and learn about effective online teaching practices, EdTech theory, and hands-on online tools.

Date: Tuesday, May 11th – Tuesday, June 29th

Time: 4:30 – 5:45 pm

Location: Online

Register here.

Increasing accessibility of course content: How to create closed-captioned videos

Ari Crossby

Increasing accessibility of course content: How to create closed-captioned videos

What are closed captions?

Closed captions are a transcription of dialogue that is added to a video or digital presentation and, when turned on, appears as text on the bottom of the screen. The primary purpose of captions is to support people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. However, captions have also been shown to support the learning of students who speak English as an additional language, students with learning disabilities, and students who are new to a discipline and may be unfamiliar with the jargon and unique terminology.

Share closed-captioned videos with students in four easy steps

Step one: Upload your video to Kaltura MediaSpace

Before you can add closed captions to a video you will need to upload it to your MediaSpace library. If you are unfamiliar with uploading videos, click through the steps below. If you have experience with MediaSpace, skip ahead to find out how to add closed captions.

Step two: Add and edit closed captions in Kaltura MediaSpace

The following video will walk you through the steps of ordering and editing machine-generated closed captions in MediaSpace.

Direct video link: Kaltura MediaSpace: Adding closed captions

Step three: Publish your video in Kaltura MediaSpace

Newly uploaded media is set to Private by default so after adding closed captions, you will need to publish your video.

Setting a video to Unlisted allows you to share your video with students but makes it unsearchable. Setting a video to Published allows you to share your video or make it available in a Channel or playlist.

""Save the changes, and then Click Go To Media to view the video, or Go To My Media to see the video in your MyMedia library.

Step four: Share your video with your students in Brightspace

You are now ready to share your closed-captioned video with students.  In Brightspace, you can insert Kaltura videos anywhere you find the HTML Editor.

Spring 2021 Online Book Club

Ari Crossby 1 Comment

Pivoting to remote online teaching has been a learning journey that has felt more like a roller coaster ride than a road trip at times. Let’s continue on this adventure together.

Join the online book club as we read selected parts of Tony Bates’s Teaching in a Digital Age and continue evolving and improving our teaching practices through reading, discussion, and self-reflection.

“Through 12 informative chapters, Teaching in a Digital Age: Guidelines for Teaching and Learning answers your questions and provides helpful guidance and suggestions on a host of topics including:

  • How do I decide whether my courses should be campus-based, blended or fully online?
  • What strategies work best when teaching in a technology-rich environment? What methods of teaching are most effective for blended and online classes?
  • How do I make choices among all the available media, whether text, audio, video, computer, or social media, in order to benefit my students and my subject?
  • How do I maintain quality of teaching, learning, and resources in a rapidly changing learning environment?
  • What are the real possibilities for teaching and learning using MOOCs, OERS, open textbooks?

While understanding and respecting the individual nature of teaching, Tony talks theory, options, best practices, point-by-point strategies – offering clear, practical, and actionable advice and guidance based on research and best practices.”

As a group, we will decide on which chapters to focus and set goals together. The book club is a supportive environment in which to share ideas, questions, and learn about effective online teaching practices, EdTech theory, and hands-on online tools.

Date: Tuesday, January 12 – Tuesday, March 23, no meeting on Feb. 16

Time: 4:30 – 5:45 pm

Location: Online

Link to e-book: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/

Sign up here: Spring 2021 Online Book Club

End-of-Semester Sharing Session

Ari Crossby

On Friday, November 27th from 10:30 until 12:00, Ed Tech is hosting an End-of-Semester Sharing Session and we would love for you to participate. 

 

How can you participate? 

Share your tool or activity

If you have adopted a tool or educational technology-based activity this semester that is effective for both you and your students and you would like to share it with others, we invite you to share. 

Each Ed Tech tool/activity show & tell can be a few minutes long and up to 5 minutes and requires no formal preparation. If you would like, you can share a screenshot or share your screen to show us your activity, but it’s not absolutely necessary.  

To sign-up as a presenter, email Mirabelle Tinio (mtinio@langara.ca) or Briana Fraser (bfraser@langara) and let us know what tool or activity you plan on sharing. 

Ask questions and help solve issues

If you are looking to solve an issue with a tool or educational technology-based activity, we invite you to attend. 

Through sharing our successes and challenges, we hope to brainstorm solutions we can test next semester.  

To sign-up as an audience member, sign-up on the iWeb event page. 

We hope to see you then. 

Using Padlet to Enhance Online Group work

Ari Crossby 3 Comments

Wondering how to keep your online students engaged?  EdTech Advisor and former Chair of Library Tech, Diane Thompson, suggests Padlet, a tool that facilitates interactive and collaborative creativity.

Using Padlet to Enhance Online Group work

The challenge of maintaining teaching continuity in the era of COVID, which has forced the rapid switch from classroom to online activities, requires creativity. Fear not: familiar ways of engaging our students can be modified for online use.

Collaborative work in the classroom is relatively straightforward. Students can be divided into groups and active learning techniques can be employed to explore relevant course topics. In an online course, this is a bit more challenging as students may be in other time zones, or have different schedules.

The goal of technology is to solve a problem. One technology tool that may prove to be very effective in the context of online group work is Padlet. This visual tool allows your students to express their thoughts on a given topic or assignment. Its application allows users to include various content, such as images, videos, documents, and texts in real time communications. In my experience, the collaborative nature of Padlet makes for a great way to explore ideas as a class or in small group projects. Padlet allows for a number of different templates, including a timeline template, grid or map.

Here is an example from an English class where everyone contributed to literary quotes.

Here’s another example from Jessie Smith’s Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) assignment. She used Padlet to explore specific topics for her Latin American Studies course in connection with her partner and class in Argentina.

The last Padlet example demonstrated is from my own course (LIBR 1219) where students collaborate to come up with engaging questions to ask their tour guides when visiting various libraries in our community as part of their field work / practicum course. Students are asked to form groups and come up with categories. Once categories are established, they must then work together to come up with questions pertaining to the workplace. This is all done online.

Overall, Padlet is very easy to use. All you need to do is sign up at padlet.com and start creating. Security levels can be adjusted so that you can share your Padlets publicly or keep them password- protected. Sharing the link to your class is simple and, from your students’ perspective, editing is also straightforward once you have selected the template and explained how to complete the assignment.

The basic version of the programme will allow you to have up to three Padlets, whereas if you choose to sign up for the Pro version (not free), you can have multiple Padlets going at once.

If you have stories to share about how you are using Padlet, I would love to hear them.

General Guidelines for using Zoom

Ari Crossby

Zoom is a modern web-based video communication platform that can be used to introduce a synchronous (real-time) element to online teaching and learning. For example an instructor could use Zoom to conduct online office hours or use the breakout rooms functionality for student group-work.

It takes commitment from all participants in a Zoom session — instructors and students — to develop and maintain a positive learning environment. Everyone is responsible for creating a safe and inclusive collaboration space when using Zoom and is expected to behave in a manner that is professional and ethical.

Before Using Zoom

For resources on using Zoom, visit Langara’s Zoom landing page to learn more about the functionality and use of this platform.

Ensure Zoom is accessible to the students in your classes. Synchronous learning tools often present unique challenges to students including whether they have access to devices with webcams, caps on data, internet speed and stability, finding a quiet place to participate, and the challenge of studying in different time zones. If in doubt consider using pre-recorded video instead.

If you are recording synchronous Zoom sessions, students need to be notified. Zoom recordings are to be used to support student learning only and should not be shared or used for any other purpose. Ask students to turn off their webcam and identify themselves using a first name only. If you upload the recording to Kaltura Mediaspace for sharing, make sure you delete the recording from your personal computer.

Setting up Zoom Sessions

There are a number of recommendations below on how to use Zoom effectively in teaching and learning to increase the safety and security of the learning environment.

  • Set up a password for all Zoom sessions as an added layer of security.
  • Enable the “mute upon entry” feature for your classroom participants
  • Control the chat function and disable private chats. Chats are retained if a session is recorded, and may be accessible under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
  • If possible, set up a co-host to help during Zoom sessions. This could be a colleague,  teaching assistant or other responsible student that can assist you to host the session. Co-hosts can help manage the chat function, set up break out rooms, and help manage the learning environment.
  • If practical, you can enable the “Waiting Room” feature – one of the most secure ways to allow only those invited to the session to attend.
  • The default screen-sharing option for educational accounts is “Host Only” – this allows only instructors to share their screen, unless they change it. If you want others to share their screen content, you can invite them during the session to do so, or via settings beforehand. See here for information on screen sharing.

Adapted from University of Calgary Guidelines for Zoom

This content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Meet the people supporting you as Educational Technology’s Instructional Assistants!

Ari Crossby

 

 

Daniel Andrade Fonseca 

My specialties are web development and project management; I offer technical support to instructors in Brightspace and other Langara tools, like Zoom and Kaltura.    

My interest in technology started early.  I’ve loved video games since I was a kid in Brazil; I have a big collection of consoles and games, including PS4, Xbox One, and retro games, such as Super Nintendo.  I am also a big fan of sports, especially soccer and basketball. I recently attended NFL, NBA games and went to the last Olympic Games in Rio. During my weekly 10 k run, I enjoy Vancouver’s weather and think about life. 

 

  

Nimmy Nelson 

I have been with EdTech since 2016. 

I did my Bachelor’s in Computer Science (2011-2015) in Kerala, India and my PDD in Business Administration here at Langara (2016-2017). 

My hobbies include cooking traditional South Indian dishes like Sambhar and Kozhikode biriyani and I recently picked up crocheting and embroidery. I also love listening to books in Audible. Most recently, I’ve read Inglorious Empire by Shashi Tharoor and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. 

 

 

Heidi Mede 

I joined the EdTech department in 2006 as an Instructional Assistant and became the Supervisor of Department Operations in 2016. My career path has had several zigzags; working in a shelter for the homeless, with children with physical and mental challenges, in a transition home for people with traumatic brain injuries and operating my own daycare. Ever since I was a child, I’ve loved taking apart electronics, so during the dot-com boom, I went back to school to learn about computers & graduated in network administration. I worked at Oracle Corporation for 5 years, but always felt like a square peg in a round hole and didn’t know why. It wasn’t until I came to Langara that I realized it was the public sector where I belong; showing people how to blend technology and education has become my passion. 

Outside of work, I get out into nature as much as possible and I love to garden. I’m known to remove dead flower heads from plants on my walks, which shocks my walking partners. 

 

  

Brett Foster 

Since I was a child, I’ve enjoyed taking things apart to see how they work and then putting them back together.  I operated a computer consulting business for over ten years and worked with the IT Department at the Vancouver Sun/Province newspapers for many years. To this day, I love to learn about technology and share what I’ve learned. 

I came to Langara in 2018 to work as a Technical Services Coordinator for Ricoh Canada in the Information Technology Department, where I managed over 100 Ricoh Multi-Function devices. 

In December of 2019, I was hired to work in the Educational Technology Department as an Instructional Assistant. I love my new job and coworkers in EdTech and TCDC. 

When I am not on the campus, I run, play guitar and listen to music. 

 

 

Serenia Tam 

My technical education began in San Francisco, from which I have a BA in Industrial Design, concentrating in Web Design; AS concentrating in Computer Science; AAs in Illustration & Fashion Design and a certificate in Library & Information Technology.  I also have certificates in Web Developer & Publisher from Langara, where I’m currently studying photography.  I’ve worked with EdTech since early 2010 after having worked in BCIT, VGH, VPL, and San Francisco Public Library in addition to freelancing as a website designer.  I’m currently an Instructional Assistant in both EdTech & Library & Information Tech.   

I read and write Cantonese & Mandarin, and have studied Japanese, French & English.  I love traveling, photography, fabric arts and gardening and am passionate about animal rights & social justice.   

  

 

Craig Madokoro 

I’ve been the Media Production Technician for the Educational Technology department for 4 years, after having worked at the College for many more.  In addition to maintaining the EdTech recording studio, I livestream College events, facilitate workshops and preserve and convert analogue to digital material.  I also enjoy helping faculty and staff create audio & video content to enhance learning using state of the art technical equipment. 

After graduating from the Vancouver Film School, I worked in the local film & television industry (CBC, Roger’s Community TV) as an editor, camera operator, audio recorder and special effects artist.  

When I’m not at work, I enjoy painting, playing hockey, and caring for my 2 dogs, Coco and Bboshong.   

 

Arien (Ari) Crosby 

I love learning new interfaces and technologies and helping others learn them. I’ve been with EdTech since 2011, around the time that we began the transition from Blackboard to Brightspace. I have a background in web design, and started at Langara in the Library & Information Technology program. Now you can ask me your questions about Brightspace, Zoom web conferencing, Kaltura/MediaSpace, or setting up or maintaining your WordPress site on CourseWeb or iWeb. 

 In my free time I do a lot of knitting, gardening, and fitting in as much tabletop gaming as I can manage