Digital Literacy: The Benefits of a Being Bilingual

Recently a faculty member at my institution who is traveling to a country where folks simply can't afford Microsoft products, asked me to find out:  If a student does NOT have word on their computer would they be able to upload a Canvas assignment as a Word document? I experimented on my laptop that does not have Word installed; downloading a Google doc as a Word doc and then submitting an assignment in Canvas. The results: It works GREAT!!! I also had the option of letting Canvas go to my Google Docs file for this; if I had chosen to do so, it would have worked as well. 

     This is important in several ways for our very diverse students, because even though institutions offer Word products while they are students, they are on their own after that. Microsoft products are quite pricey....as compared to Google, which is FREE,  with access everywhere. When you don't have an internet connection, you can even work on Google docs offline: here's how. https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-and-use-google-docs-offline/

I am beginning to see this as an equity issue. Our students are mobile users and learners. If we encourage students to make use of their Gmail accounts, it comes with the complete suite of Google Drive offerings. With Google docs, they will never, ever lose their work, or have to buy a flash drive.  They can easily collaborate together on projects, store all their photos in one place, use Google Sheets for statistics and Google slides for presentations that they will be able to access and keep even after they graduate. In the meantime, sheets would be uploaded just like Excel and slides as Powerpoints in Canvas. 

    As a teacher, you have the option of easily avoiding Word altogether and having students hand in Google docs as an assignment, where you can easily make comments on their documents, and also view their version history to see the progress of their work.  You can create collaborative assignments as well, harnessing the power of the Internet and helping create knowledge-building learning communities. 

But perhaps you are not familiar with using Google...your "go-to" place is Microsoft Word.

 Google is for the people, and my educator mind bonds with that. But perhaps you are not familiar with using Google...your "go-to" place is Microsoft Word. If you are an educator, you are probably familiar with the various articles and research relating to the benefits of the bilingual brain.  It thinks outside a bigger box: Being fluent in another language means you have broader perspectives that make your conceptual toolbox bigger, with extra sets of tools to work with.  Something that looks all the world like a scarf - a furoshiki -can be used to carry things.  A traditional kimono sleeve can be used as a pocket. Once your concepts have expanded, you transfer them in multiple ways.  This is why, for example, the New York Times Article, Why Bilinguals Are Smarter points out that bilinguals "seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles."  Certainly, increasing one's ability to simply think about things from a different perspective is, in itself, good exercise for the brain.

Google inspires and transcends boundaries set up from a closed environment.

    Working with computers is no different.  Digitally speaking, I was raised speaking Microsoft Word - my first computer language - which is akin to being raised in a conservative, privileged family. Then, when I traveled to visit the culture of Google a few years ago, I fell in love with the openness and complete transportability of my digital life, and have now become quite fluent, a self-professed Google advocate. In my capacity as an educator, I often find myself introducing others to Google culture with much enthusiasm; "Here's our collaborative document. Add your thoughts here," I say, and share it out on Microsoft Outlook in my work email.  "But where do I save it?" comes one reply.  "Who will see this?" says another.  I happily respond with "No need to save. No one but who we want to see it will see it."  

     I use Microsoft word documents and "suite" because they are the supported and expected system to use at work.  I suppress my nearly daily annoyances for the sake of standard conformity when needed.  Microsoft is my standard work uniform.   But whenever possible I turn to Google for myriad Internet information and tools, for my reports, presentations, and collaborations with others. Google inspires and transcends boundaries set up from a closed environment. After discovering a  growing number of free applications and add-ons - that actually keep getting better - I have a growing irritation with the idea of being asked to pay for tools. 

It takes a while to learn this second language...there is always interference from your native tongue at first. When your writing life has been dominated by the word SAVE - based on numerous mistakes in the past that led to having to re-type documents - entering the culture of "It's always there, and it's yours" is hard to adjust to.  But there are muscle memory habits that need to be adjusted; the toolbars are laid out differently; there are sure to be a few keystroke errors at first.  But being digitally bilingual is empowering. The options keep changing and growing..and so should we. 

Photos by Augustine Wong on Unsplash

Affecting, not Correcting

     Last week I was talking with an English instructor, and he mentioned one of his least favorite aspects to the job, having a seemingly endless pile of  "too many papers to correct."  We talked for a bit about ideas to help reduce that load he carries, such  having students read drafts and provide feedback to each other as part of the writing process.  I also mentioned that he can encourage  and guide students to use tools such as Grammarly,  https://www.grammarly.com/, Google's Language Tool, both of which go beyond just spell checking, before they turn their papers in, to reduce the amount of correcting that needed to be done. He had done none of these things, and nodded distractedly, and afterwards I felt that my message had not been loud enough. Or perhaps he was unable to hear due to the mental din created by being completely resigned to a lifestyle of correcting papers every weekend. 

    It is no longer necessary for this type of attitude or lifestyle.  Making effective use of tools is one of the digital competencies of 21st-century learning.  These tools empower our multilingual and new-to-writing students to write research papers and post to discussions with confidence, giving them the ability to express themselves clearly.  They give all learners the ability to gain and use new knowledge with much more ease than ever before.  And they shift the teacher's job of "correcting" to something much more connected to the deeper levels of learning and richer conversations than simply putting squiggly lines under sentence fragments, circles around dangling modifiers. and question marks in the margins. 

     Language matters.  Instead of "correcting" - which implies from the outset that something is wrong - we should be thinking of ourselves as affecting.  Imagine how that concept in itself would change the way we approach looking at student writing; we are there to help them clarify with "Tell me more about this" and build on their own experience "What makes you feel this way?" leading to a more satisfying and engaging learning experience for both teacher and student. This kind of approach also allows for individuality of voice for the student, and shifts the role of teacher to facilitator; someone who moderates and encourages the learning process. 

     The bottom line of teaching is affecting student lives. In all aspects of our relationships with students, if we  shift our mental state to affecting, instead of correcting, we will enhance both the enjoyment and depth of the learning process. And who knows how much it would add to our energy and spirit  if that pile of weekend paperwork disappeared? 

Image source: http://competendo.net/en/Facilitation 

The Secret to Increased Student Retention

There is a big push in our local community and technical college system to both increase retention and move more students towards degree completion.  This is an ongoing struggle, as we are working with students whose lives are split between work, family and school. Sometimes it feels like the harder we - the institutions -  try, the harder it gets. My own institution, Renton Technical College, has an open entry system that  allows for anyone in the community to register for the program of their choice with relative ease and get started on learning job skills.  The problem is keeping them until program completion.  Why would someone invest the time, money and effort  in starting a program only to leave after one or two quarters? The pat "look on the positive side" answer is usually that they found a job; the less flattering one is that their language skills or study skills weren't up to par.  But amazingly,  it is never that they weren't being taught well.

This is the elephant in the room. We need to train our teachers to reach our learners where they are at.  At community and technical colleges we have so many teachers who are subject matter experts from the field who have very little or absolutely no training in how to teach.  This is a glaring problem that we need to face.  We have older teachers who have been teaching in a "sage on the stage; read a chapter and take a test" form for years who are now seeing internet-savvy students walk away because they can get so much of what they need on their own, and who want to learn from someone who engages them on multiple levels. And immigrant students  - who used to be a classroom minority - are now the majority, and need to be recognized and have their needs identified and their abilities acknowledged.

This could all be solved with some expectations and guidelines for teachers to be updated with current teaching practices and ongoing chances to experiment, share and collaborate.  Just like students, they need a clear pathway to success, not a foggy "go and do it" approach to their jobs. Unlike K-12 educators, higher education does not require teachers to be certified in any way on teaching itself, but perhaps this is the moment where that should shift.  No amount of expertise in any given field will help you when you are working with students from all ages, backgrounds, and goals. If a system and a school want to increase retention and completion rates, they should look first and foremost at improving the very thing that education is all about: Teaching and Learning.

English 101 students at RTC 

Tweeting as Practice in Metacognition

My Twitter journey has been an intentional one.  I had never used Twitter at all when I signed up for a Canvas Network MOOC on social media in 2013. (You can read about it my experience, which I likened to Whitewater River Rafting, here.) Thinking it would be a "light" and easy course, I discovered that it took quite a bit of effort to get going in a meaningful direction. I was interested in learning to use Twitter as an educator; to network and learn from other educators, and I kept myself in that mindset.  Our task was to find people in our fields to follow, and to get 50 people to follow us as we practiced the fine art of creating 140-character units of meaning that are powerful enough to catch the attention of others.  It took me nearly 10 weeks to do it, but I did. Here is a snapshot taken the day before the course ended, when I had tweeted 89 times, followed 155 others, and finally got 50 people to follow me: 

I have now tweeted 1,332 times and am following 625 educators, and  have 441 followers.  I look at Twitter as a professional development tool, an inspiring friend, and an intelligent and friendly social network.  For someone as busy and somewhat introverted as myself, it is a treasure. And, I have found that it is a great tool for metacognitive practice.

Metacognition: Thinking about Thinking

When I go to conferences, I listen, pull out main ideas, and tweet.  I take photos and add words, and my brain starts to put ideas together.  I lean my head down, listening, and re-word main ideas from keynotes and presentations. I am acutely aware of using the tool to make my thoughts clear, to find connections with the concepts and myself,  and to make meaning from my immediate world. My initial self-consciousness at even having my phone in my hand has given way to a purposeful taking of photos, adding thoughts, ideas, and questions to them.  It may look like I'm not listening.  Actually, I'm listening - and remembering - much more than I ever did in the past.  I used to take notes that were kept in unopened folders that were eventually recycled.  Now I stretch my brain and connect on a much deeper level.  

It did take some practice; messaging, typing, snapping photos all at once.  It has become much easier for me, and I'm sure would be even easier if I were as adept at using a cellphone as many people are.  But I persevere, and find that - even if I happen to miss a sentence or two of what is said along the way - I come away with a lot more than I used to. I love how this is immediately shared and often built upon by others.  It is a memory-booster and idea-generator all at once,  I can review tweets later, and I can like and retweet  the ideas of others, and  add them to my personal collection. 

Tweeting also helps me keep my metacognative mindset in everyday situations as well.  I take photos of students on our campus, ask permission to tweet it (so far always greeted with enthusiasm) and then add thoughts to them.  The combination of words and images is powerful. Pausing in a busy day to take a picture, connect with an individual, and share that connection, is powerful. I have started making a conscious effort to allow this room for connection and reflection. 

I have been influenced by the ideas of others on twitter, and am constantly amazed at the intelligence and creativity I encounter in the education community.  I rarely have time for a "tweet chat" but the few I have participated in have been incredibly thought-provoking. Just seeing some of the remnants of the chats of others has been useful.  My Twitter community has opened my eyes to things I need to think more about related to teaching and learning; accessibility, equity, diversity, tech tools, professional development, data, research and more. 

Tweeting stimulates my thinking process; I have to think about what I want to take away and  how to express it. For me, the process of tweeting is thinking - often deep thinking.  

Have you had this kind of experience? How do you approach twitter?  I'm interested in your experiences.  On twitter I am @lizfalconer80. 

Teacher as Student

Summer is a time of re-energizing for many faculty. It is also a great time for some focused professional development without the constant stress of teaching. One of the best forms of professional development available it to become a student yourself. It is through the experience of putting on the student hat that I often find myself seeing a need for deeper empathy for busy schedules, distractions, and the frustration of unclear navigation or assignment directions.  When I take online PD courses such as Quality Matters, it requires me to work in Moodle, a platform I am unfamiliar with, and it brings to light many of the stumbling areas that our students experience when working online. Directions that seem clear to the instructor can be interpreted with confusion by students; vocabulary we are familiar with ("Download"; "Post"; "Attach") may be very familiar to us, but not to someone new or coming back to school after many years. 

In RTC's  eLearning Certificate courses for faculty, we have "soft" weekly deadlines, asking that participants use them for guidelines, but understanding that some will be working in spurts and starts.   I have had many participants express gratitude for this.  Are there ways we can allow the kind of flexibility in our regular courses?  

Face to face courses offer us similar opportunities to glean teaching ideas based on our experience as a learner. I have found so many Do's and Don'ts  by attending classes, seminars, and presentations. While sitting in the student seat, we have a chance to step back and reflect on what it means to learn according to someone else's standards and expectations. It gives us the chance to re-think our own style, incorporate new ideas, and make mental notes on what to avoid. 

Faculty, I hope you have the chance to be a student this summer. If you are looking for ways to do this, you can sign up for a MOOC at Canvas.net or Coursera.org, or look for opportunities in your institution or area, including free library presentations and programs offered by the city.  Re-energize as a student, and start fall with a refreshed perspective. 

#OUTCOMES

     
     I am just finishing checking and collecting course outcomes for almost 500 courses at our college. That means over 2,000 outcomes, in an epic spreadsheet, ready to be added to our website. It so happens that this year I have also become a co-facilitator in several Quality Matters workshops offered by our state system as well, all of which focus on course outcomes, alignment of outcomes  with assignments, and assessment. That means that this year I have had the opportunity to take a very close look at hundreds of course pieces; syllabi and modules and rubrics and discussions on how to improve all of the above. For someone who loves building curriculum (I also spend a lot of time developing and facilitating other professional development courses for educators as well) this has been a fantastically fascinating (albeit time-consuming) experience.

     The outcome of this?  I have a new respect for the power of outcomes and what they can do for both faculty and students. They help faculty deeply consider the main aspects of their course and how to best bring that to the students.   To not get too distracted or stray too far off course. They help students see what it is they are going to get out of a course, and - especially with the help of rubrics - what the expectations are for how they will get there. Clear language regarding outcomes helps to bring an immediacy to the learning experience.  Together, the faculty and students strive to work through the activities;  to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create.  (I have made a list of Bloom's action verbs available on our Canvas LMS help tab for faculty to easily refer to when writing their outcomes.)

     Writing outcomes takes some thought; it is a process that is something akin to painting an abstract picture. It requires expressing your thoughts about a whole course in a few succinct sentences. (Later, this helps you to break down each module you teach to support those course outcomes as well.) Many faculty teach with a very general idea of what needs to be done, adjusting as they go based on student needs, time, and materials.  Most have no time to write formal lesson plans, per se. Outcomes should respect this need for creativity and on-the-fly adjustments; they should not confine that very important personal aspect of teaching. They need to convey the general underlying concepts, not the details of any given course. And they are most powerful when they address the truly meaningful aspects of learning.  

    Thoughtful outcomes create an improved pathway for both faculty and students. I look forward to the continued journey in working with more and more faculty on outcomes and their related aspects. Outcomes, like online learning, are becoming a part of the 21st century learning experience, and can be artfully embedded into any course. If we embrace them and allow them to help us teach, our classes will become all the more vibrant. 

PARK | Flickr - Photo Sharing! : taken from - https://www.flickr.com/photos/winnybiets/27862291556/Author: winny biets https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Online Learners all get the Front Row

     In the online classroom,  every student in the class is in the front row.  Everyone can see and hear. You don't have to worry about your voice carrying, or that someone can't read your writing on the whiteboard. No one is jumping up and leaving when the bell rings, questions unanswered.  No one is dominating the class so that others can't talk.  There is less chance for the conversation to go off-topic, and zero chance that you have to repeat yourself because someone is late. 


     This means that online teaching can be as surprisingly time-consuming and exhausting as it is rewarding and exciting. While we have the chance to interact with each student as an individual with our feedback, that can take a lot of effort in larger courses.  And while there is a growing array of tools to use to create active learning environments for our students,  becoming experts on what and how to use them takes time and effort.  We have to stay on our virtual toes all the time; it is a different mindset to being "on" for a class period.  It is a shift in perspective that requires intentional adjustments. 

    But the more I teach online the more I think it is ultimately well worth the shift. I have found that I get to know so many students on a personal basis online, and the format has given them a chance to help me  not just by with my typos (which happens more often than I like to admit) but by pointing out relevant articles and contributing amazing posts and ideas that there simply is no venue for in a ground classroom. Hybrid has long been my favorite format, but as my schedule has become filled with creating and facilitating more and more online courses, I am gaining a deeper appreciation of what it can bring to our learning experiences. 

Mr. Wade-a-Minute

Fresh from the Washington Canvas Conference at Tacoma Community College, my husband John and I went out to dinner at the nearby Duke's Restaurant.  This is a very popular waterfront spot known for its great chowder and seafood food - and its fantastic happy hour menu, always a big selling point for us. I had been part of  3 presentations at the conference, and was feeling delighted that the pressure was over, that the sessions had been good, and to have made some great new connections as well as reconnecting with others that inspire me.  Bring on the happy hour!

Our 30-ish waiter came and bent down on one knee by the table to talk to us.  I noticed right away his focus; his first mission was to connect.  It felt like we knew him - he connected as a person; none of that rote, memorized stuff. He introduced himself as Wade, and explained some menu items as we looked over the huge menu- so many decisions to make.  He could tell we would need time. "No hurry - just let me know when you are ready," he said.  As he turned to leave, he said, "It's Wade. My friends in college used to call me "Wade-a-Minute".

Now, I usually can't remember someone's name for more than 5 seconds after they turn away. But he had given me a mnemonic. Wait a Minute.  Mr. Wade-a-Minute.

When he brought our drinks, we chatted a bit more. He looked at my peacock scarf and said, "Peacock; my spirit animal." I looked at him quizzically. "They laugh like humans, and I love to laugh," he explained.  "How do you know its your spirit animal?"  I asked.  "I took the spirit animal test," he said.  As soon as he left the table, I looked it up online on my phone.

As we enjoyed our (first) drinks, I took the short spirit animal quiz. In the past, a lot of people at our institution have  taken the Strength Finder Quiz, and they have cards posted near their desks or on their doors, with things such as: Achiever. Empathy. Positivity.  It has always bothered me that they are not grammatically parallel terms. They also seem to be no more "real" than the  horoscope...although you can get that for free, whereas this one costs money.  So I was happy to take the quiz....and delighted with the results.

When Mr. Wade-a-Minute came back to the table, I told him: "I'm a butterfly.  Powerful transformer." He grinned - a bit surprised that (someone so old as myself?) had taken the quiz.  He had engaged me with a new idea, and I had tried something new.  My husband John thought it was a perfect description, but  rather than take the quiz himself, wanted to concentrate on his new drink, which Mr You-Know-Who had recommended.

As we enjoyed our meal, I watched Wade move around the section. He knelt at each table and gave them his full attention, nodding, listening, recommending. He made sure that each of his tables had his undivided attention when he was there, then he was up and running; putting in orders, bringing food and drinks, moving with efficiency and intent.

It dawned on me that he was putting into action many ideas that were highlighted at the conference. He knows how to connect and meet his audience where they are, he is not the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side, and I had learned something new.  He brought the personal into the setting to build a little community at each very diverse table, with diverse needs and attitudes. He guided the whole experience, and we left with a feeling of wanting to go back, not because of the food, but because of Mr. Wade-a-Minute.

I think we all have this power in our hands, if we just connect with intent, listen to our students' needs, and step back and guide their experience.

You can't see what they're wearing...

The first time I taught a Hybrid course (2009) I fell in love with the format. (I'm the kind of person who falls in love with things like formats.) It was an advanced writing course for ESL students, and I took full advantage of blogging. We met once a week for 4 hours on Friday mornings; went over some grammar points, often doing small group activities to reinforce them, did some sharing of our writing, and started discussing our next topic/writing style. Everyone left with a writing project for their blog; I went over these on Wednesdays and made comments and suggestions. They could easily re-publish their posts, and I encouraged the use of visuals to enhance their writings. I watched in fascination as the combination of blog ownership, the ease of corrections and the joy of sharing their writings (we sometimes went "Blog Hopping") empowered them to become much more confident and effective writers. From there I developed a hybrid reading course. That joy I felt with those classes was the main reasons I felt hesitation when I had a chance to shift to a new position related to faculty development. 

Little did I realize at that point that my new position would take me even further into the realm of online teaching. I was introduced to the Quality Matters rubric for online teacahing in my first month on the job and - you guessed it! - fell in love with the format. Coming quickly on the heels of my training was a deep need at our institution to develop excellent online teachers. I worked with one of our Deans to put together a month-long online in-service for online teachers that highlighted their best practices. The more I worked with community college teachers the more I felt the need for information on utilizing technology and creating inclusive online and hybrid courses. With the need was so obvious and the teachers so interested in learning, I put together a month-long course for educators called "Technology for Teaching and Learning". It immediately filled up; I just finished the second round. And I find that online teaching can indeed be effective and inspiring as classroom teaching. 

Online teaching has a quieter personality from hybrid teaching, but like a lot of people with quiet personalities that take a while to get to know, they end up being your best friend. With online teaching, you can't see what the student is wearing. But you can see what the student is wondering. The excellent online teacher pays attention to discussions, makers herself available to questions, and sets up a course that is easy to navigate with an atmosphere that welcomes (not threatens) students. There are so many ways to connect with students personally online; you can respond to their needs with explanations, links to websites, and images. I always hated trying to draw things on the whiteboard, and frankly my handwriting is atrocious; my online courses have wonderfully engaging images (I use my camera often) and a great selection of readable fonts. 

The more I work with course development the more ways I find to communicate and develop relationships with my students, and for them to learn from each other as well. I am finding that discoveries and sharing from my online courses - which I can revisit whenever I want - reverberate in my mind longer than a ground class. Teaching online means teaching with the world at your fingertips. This means state-of-the-art possibilities with tools and technology. It literally means the best minds in the world can be part of your class materials. It means your students can study anytime, anywhere, and can ask you any question they want without disrupting class. As I prepare to teach the second iteration of the Canvas course "Hybrid Courses: Best of Both Worlds" - a massive online course about hybrid teaching - I reflect daily on these two teaching formats, comparing them as well as reflecting on and building my own approach and philosophy. The thing I look forward to the most in facilitating the course again is the communication and idea exchange that will go on between the participants, as they learn from and inspire each other. We'll be using a variety of technology I'm incorporating into the course - and developing Hybrid Course Planners along the way. I am also excited because we will have a fantastic guest speaker; Jesse Stommel will join us in a google hangout! I can't wait for this next adventure. (Interested educators from any field are welcome! Enroll here.) I created this week's infographic, thinking about online teaching: 

 

Care and Feeding of Online Students

A few weeks ago I attended a conference for Higher Education administrators from Community Colleges with a focus on Big Data. Big Data, we heard, is Huge. Massive. A Big Deal: We can now look at user behavior by counting  mouse clicks as people navigate a website, see how many page views and what time of the day a student is doing homework, and break that down even further; maybe we can even start to tell students what time of day they study best, by looking at their results.  We can see where online students get stuck, giving educators an idea of how to better explain things.  With Big Data, we don't ask questions and look for the answer; the "data-first philosophy" mashes together the information from social networks and everywhere else on the web and we gain insights from what it tells us.  And the cost is low; we can experiment often, looking for correlation rather than causation. It has turned analysis on its head, and everyone is bubbling with its potential.

The burning question among educators, as we shift our courses to various new models of blended and online learning, is: How can we make our students (especially those online students) more successful? (In other words, retention, retention, retention.) Obviously the online class has incredible potential; besides the time and money in transportation alone it frees up for the very busy community college student -  many of whom are studying in a second language, are single parents and working at least part time - the online environment offers pathways to information and tools that can enhance, supplement and support learning at every level.  The answer to that, from what I could gather from the Big Data experts, is to use the now-incredible power of data to analyze performance, use course analytics and hire very specialized experts in Big Data to glean how students are performing and how to make them perform better.   (The "low cost" part breaks down a bit here.)

I am happy for Big Data; what a wonderfully useful tool to come out of our computer lives!  But the whole time I listened to the presentations (many of which were coming from people involved with companies standing to benefit from Big Data users) I felt a nagging concern.

No one was talking about caring.  The way to make any student stay involved is to make a personal connection and recognize that student as an individual.  Even in my MOOC, even more than I expected, I was able to connect with my students by being a part of the discussions, responding as much as possible to as many as possible. ( I facilitated it along with doing my regular job, spending an hour in the morning and a few hours in the evenings checking in and answering questions.) I also structured the course so that the students had a chance to learn about themselves and each other as an integral part of the learning experience.  We had a Facebook page, used twitter (#CnHyBest) and I made frequent announcements and updates, sometimes incorporating student responses.   One of my early tweets was, "This MOOC classroom is so vibrant and international...can feel the energy pulsing from the computer!" Over a third of the active participants completed the final project for a certificate of completion...a very high rate for a MOOC course.

Caring doesn't sound very academic and it certainly isn't as new as Big Data. But I think any course that has a strong element of caring will retain more students than a course with low teacher-student interaction.  The key is having an involved teacher who is trained not just in the subject matter but also to listen, watch for falters, be ready to gently cajole,  try new things, and convey a sense of enthusiasm.  Online teaching allows us so much more than more data; it allows us to have personal conversations with many people, and for them to have conversations with each other.  We should be looking at it as a chance to get personally involved with our student success. MOOCs aside,  the online teacher can reach each and every student in a way that empowers and motivates them.  Each teacher needs to embrace the idea that we can have an effect on student lives beyond the subject matter. This is a skill that needs to be understood and talked about as much as anything else when it comes to student success.

This was on my mind when I saw a quote by the Dalai Lama on a friend's facebook page : "Open your arms to change, but never let go of your loving kindness."  I created the infographic below thinking that I want to get more of a conversation going about this aspect of online teaching among educators.   For increased student success, the answer is so clear.

(By the way I will be teaching the course again starting Oct. 21st; you can find it at The Canvas Network - Hybrid Courses: Best of Both Worlds.)

Whirlwind of Ideas

This is the last week of the Canvas Network course I'm facilitating, Hybrid Courses: Best of Both Worlds. It has been such a whirlwind of ideas that have brought me back to discussions again and again -- finding something new each time. It is like taking a walk on a beach in the morning and finding some shells, and then taking a walk the next day and collecting another beautiful basket of shells.

Photo: John Falconer - Tacoma at dusk

I don't exactly know what I was "expecting" in this course -- I spent several months planning and designing it. From scratch. (More on that in a future post!)  I guess the main thing I was hoping was that it made sense and people found it useful.  Beyond that, my inner hope is always the people become inspired.  It is obvious that they have. I feel so happy I practically skip to my computer.

I also wasn't expecting how much the course would teach me, or what kind of seeds would be planted. Everyone was excited to see how international we are: our pinmap project shows that we are truly global. We started a Faeebook page that immediately became quite active: It is open for anyone interested in Hybrid teaching and learning to join; Hybrid Courses: Best of Both Worlds.  And our "Six-word" wordwall  shows  the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness of the participants:  Derrick Logan's "Aging Educator still hungry for knowledge" stands out to me as representative of the kinds of people who continue to expand and learn in the MOOC environment.

Partway through the course I saw a need for students to be released from trying to read Every. Single. Post. and to understand how to navigate this huge cocktail-party of discussions. I wrote a post for MOOC News and Reviews about how to navigate large discussion forums:  Engaging in MOOC Discussion Forums: The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower  based on what I saw happening in the course.  And a student in the course, Randy Orwin, wrote a post,  MOOC Overload! that addresses the how-tos of understanding how the forums work in the Canvas network.  Several students wrote blogs: Martine Reverda has reflections on the course at  My MOOC Experiences and Cathy Anderson wrote on her Cathy Anderson Blog.  Tweeting went on as well via #CNHyBest.  (Where did I learn about the benefits of tweeting? In another Canvas Network course on social media that I took early this year.)

MOOCs are empowering because the focus is on learning, and this allows learners to have a chance inspire each other. We are all winning.