He never emails anymore!

Hi Addie,
I am an instructor of an online course that requires quite a bit of emailing. My problem is that some of my students don't use email very often and I find it hard to contact then and keep in touch. Do you have any ideas on what I can do?

Ms. Left In the Lurch

Dear Ms. Lurch,

 I have found the same thing in a course I teach. Have you tried texting these students? You could pass on any important information or ask them to check their email for an important attachment. I know if can be a pain if you are not used to texting, so try text from a gmail account. Has worked like a charm for me. See go to Settings and click on the Lab Tab to enable this feature. You also might find some other pretty cool stuff there. Good luck!

Addie 

Are We a Good Mash?

Dear Addie,
I like mash ups. And I find myself flirting with them. But as much as I'd like to hook up with them and have them become part of my family of tools for my online learning projects, I just haven't seen a future using mash ups. What do you think?
Signed,
On the fence

Dear On,

It is hard to say, since I don't know very much about you and your work. However, I have recently discovered Mashpedia and have to say that the next chance I get I am going to  introduce it in a course I am working on. I can see it as way to help learners gain background knowledge, as well as the current buzz on a topic all on one page. You have to just test it out by entering a term to see what I mean, but you get  text (such as a definition), images, video,articles, Diggs, Tweets, blogs and more --- all on one page.

So why don't you give mash ups another chance and perhaps otherr will add their ideas on how you and mash ups become a good match.
Sincerely,
Addie

Giving Voice to an Idea

Dear Addie,
I teach English language learners. I am setting up groups and want them to work together. Do you have any cool new ideas for helping students communicate online asynchronously?

Thanks,
ELLie

Dear ELLie,
I do. Glad you asked. I have been excited about the possiblities I see in this tool for a while now. Take a look at VoiceThread.

Students can comments on images etc. by text, audio, video and even via the phone.  Make sure you browse some of the examples and look for  ideas at http://voicethread.com/library/

Have fun,
ADDIE


 

Flickr Pics

Dear Addie,
Just a quick note to see if you and your readers can generate some ideas about using Flickr within a foreign language course. It's nice to have students comment on each others photos and generate writing practice, but it seems like there might be a lot more creative ideas and experience floating out there. Can I request that you ask your readers to share some of their thoughts?

Thanks all,

Pic-ing Your Brain

Dear Pic-ing,

Good idea. Happy to lay this one at the feet our cool collaborators. 

Let's see if we can brainstorm a list of possible tactics that might help Pic increase the language skills of his student population.

Let 'em rip folks!

Thanks,

Steve (For ADDIE)

Getting Blogged Down

Dear ADDIE,

I suggested that a teacher use blogs instead of the discussion list, so that her students could post images and  introduce themselves thereby building a sense of community with course participants. As the course moves forward the blogs  then  become spaces where students can use them as journals to reflect and deepen their understanding of the course material. The teacher says that these have become with many students incredibly successful—in fact too successful. The teacher wants to be responsive and not wait too long to comment on student’s posts, but it is getting to be quite a chore to check each blog. Do you have any suggestions? 
Sincerely,
Wade Bloggs

Dear Wade,

First of all, I love the idea of students introducing themselves via a blog. It gives a sense of ownership as well as community that just isn’t present in a text-only discussion board.

As far as checking all the blogs—that IS a drag. Depending on the LMS used, you no doubt are aware of notification systems to students for new announcements, etc. And most use of RSS is likely aimed at having students receive updates.  But here is a situation where it is beneficial for the teacher to get updates from individual students or project groups. Have you thought about suggesting that the teacher use RSS (or become a follower?) from the blogs?  Then she need only check her reader for new posts.

Another alternative that I have tried with success is to have students have access to a single blog page and add their introductions for example on that one, and then create another for students to report on a project. That way the students themselves don’t have to visit many sites either.  I’m just beginning to test out Pageflakes  where I can set up separate pages with simple blogs for each project. Has anyone else use PageFlakes for this or other educational purposes?  Let us know.  

Best,

ADDIE

Do you think social bookmarking and my course should hook up?

Dear ADDIE,
A colleague of mine keeps urging me to get acquainted with social bookmarking. She thinks it will be a good match for the course I am developing, but I'm not so sure. I'd like to try it, but I am not sure if it is my cup of tea, so to speak. What do you think? Do you have any suggestions?
Signed,
Testing the Waters in Watertown

Dear Testing the Waters,
First of all, I think you should wait until the time is right. Remember that the selection of tools ought to be guided by how well they will help students achieve learning objectives. I know you might be feeling you should try it or that you  are tempted by something new and exciting, but wait until there's a good match.

To be honest, I have been a slow adopter to social bookmarking. It has not been until recently that I have seen its merits, so I can't speak from long experience. However, I do see the potential benefits of using Delicious for project-based learning where a group would be working together on an a extended project. Here's a link to a great site that covers all aspects, from samples to a list of activities.
http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/gallery/activities/social_bookmarking.htm

I also hope readers will use the comment feature to add their ideas for activities using social bookmarking.
Signed,
Steve (For ADDIE)

Is there life beyond discussion boards?

Dear ADDIE,
I am working on a course with an instructor who wants to have an online class of 10-15 student-teachers brainstorm and create a list of potential social studies field trips. We already will be using the discussion feature quite a bit throughout the course, and I'm having a hard time getting her on board for using any interactivity but discussion. Can you and your readers give me some advice? Should we stick with the familiar structure of the discussion board or venture out to some Web 2.0 technologies that would mean we go beyond the LMS? And if the latter, so do you have any suggestions?
Signed,
Somewhat Discuss-ted

Dear Somewhat,
I hesitate to make a judgment without knowing the experience with online learning that the learners possess.  If they are not comfortable with navigating the Web or this is their first online course, I would lean toward keeping the activity simple and structured. It might be within the discussion board or mean just having students email the teacher. Then she distributes the completed list to the class. It might seem boring to you but this experience might be "new and interesting" to this class. The teacher also might need to time to get be more comfortable with the new technology.

That said, if experience is not the issue then I would highly recommend Google Docs. Once the teacher has an account, students' emails can be added and invited to access the  document. That way students could then add a field trip suggestion to the the list.  See
http://docs.google.com/
Do any of you readers have other thoughts or suggestions for activities?
Best,  
Steve (For ADDIE)