Using Social Media for Creativity.

                                                                    credit: edupundit.org

One of my classmates, Maryam Hatami, prompted a good topic in our forums which is  how is using Social Media assisting our creativity? I thought about this for a moment. On my smartphone, when I take pictures, I would often edit to make it more appealing for my social network friends especially on Instagram.  Many iphone users use an app where they can upload a collage of pictures on Facebook.  Often people create or design their blog pages to captivate their readers. I feel we are seeing a trend of people using social media to boost their creativity. 

  
                                                                                                           credit: Yahoo Images
A student responded to Maryam's post and mentioned that in the medical industry more and more students are bringing in their artistic abilities to improve the quality of learning. There are so many jargon and terminology in medical education and when these students begin their careers, they need to be creative, both verbally and visually, to explain to their patients what is the situation at hand. One of the things students are trained to do is translate is medical radiographic images to themselves and others which is a tricky business.  Perhaps they can look up on internet for videos and images that would help them understand clearly.  However, there is an abundant visual images on social media students can turn to to improve their understanding and creativity. 

                                                                     credit: medicalart.co.uk A 3D image of pectoralis major

At the massage therapy program that I am teaching at, the students are expected to learn the muscles: the names, the origin (where it begins), and insertion (where it ends). Besides learning from online videos, textbooks, and flash cards, the school wants the student to draw each individual muscles as it is a kinesthetic learning tool. Some of them are great artists and others are weak but the point is to encourage the artistic side of their brain (mainly the right brain) and implement as much they can towards creativity while learning. 

I personally think using social media towards creativity is a good thing as long the user has balance in their creative lives.  

The article  (below)  provided by Maryam covers extensively the pros and cons of using social media for creativity. 

 http://www.designorate.com/how-social-media-affects-creativity/

This article discusses on seeing a rise of students enrolling the medical program and one of the requirements is bringing in their artistic and creative abilities as well.  A great read.  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2013/10/20/can-studying-art-help-medical-students-become-better-doctors/#535971211b3f

Use of Media Enhance Learning and Teaching Tools

        credit: blogs.technet.com

One of my classmate Liana Axente,  provided an online article (see below) focussing on media as a learning and teaching tool.  I felt this article covers many good points of implementing media enhanced tools. As I am coming to the end of my course, I am finally understanding the importance of including learning tools such as YouTube videos, gaming sites, blogs, online articles, and many more.

Liana mentioned good points of using the media enhanced tools as well as finding balance. When teaching, if  we plan to show an online video, we need to think about the learning outcomes. Does the media fit with the learning goals, has quality presentation, the length of video (preferably short), and does it prompt students to understand the subject effectively. Finally, we use media to create discussions, assess the students' knowledge, and provide examples to enhance the learning experience for students.


http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/media/why.html

Gaming as a Teaching Tool

Have you been in the movie theater and just a few minutes before the preview begins, a movie trivia would appear on the screen where you would try to pick the correct answer either in our minds or out loud with our movie companions?  You only have under a minute to answer the trivia. You just played a short game because it piqued your interest and also the trivia made the moment move quicker while waiting for the show to begin.
 
In all education levels, we are seeing more teachers and instructors incorporating some gaming activity to stimulate the learners cognitive skills as well as connecting with the subject.

One of the PIDP 3240 students shared an article which is an interesting read about 4 free online interactive quizzes educators can provide to their students.

The one that interest me the most is Triventry, which is basically, where the instructor creates the quiz  and host it on the screen in class, and the students can answer the quiz using the smartphones, tablets, or computers during class time. I think this is good for review, pre-assessment,and post assessment. This could help the instructor to see how engaged the students are in the subject and also how well they are understanding the materials.  Check the website:  www.triventry.com

Quizalize is a free online quiz activity the instructor can implement to their students learning tool. The teacher customizes the quiz according to the length, the style, the subjects and many more. The students can answer the questions from their devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. This quiz encourages the students to learn and compete with other students. During the post-quiz, the instructor can assess the quality of the exam and how well the students responded to it. Here is the website: https://www.quizalize.com/ and below is a YouTube video of the Quizalize

 



Apparently it is a very popular online quiz.  This interactive activity provides a variety of options for the instructor to customize the quiz.  One can add pictures, and videos to the quiz, and also have the choice to create a game or learning style.  The website is https://getkahoot.com/ and I provided a YouTube video of a tutorial of Kahoot.

Blubbr offers another example of online trivia that can be provided to the students. Similar to Quizalize the teacher can create the quiz accordingly and the students can respond to it at their own time.  This is the website where you can additional information https://www.blubbr.tv/ and below is the a YouTube tutorial of the Blubbr.

Refrences:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/01/4-free-tools-for-creating-playing.html#.Vsof_U9cA4A

Are Social Media Platforms Appropriate for Communication between Instructors and Students?

"Some say it can provide a platform for learning and allow students to collaborate and communicate with each other. Yet other educators say Facebook has little educational value and does not serve any academic purpose." (Bugler, 2014  eLearning Africa News)

The concept of connecting or communicating students via social platforms is thought provoking for some instructors.  Initially, I prefer not to connect with students due any boundary issues or gray areas of teacher-students relationships.  Since September 2015, I embarked my teaching journey and over time I learned from other instructors or trainers that communicating with students via social platform is convenient. 

My experience: I really love emails as I think they are the most comfortable and informal approach but with a class of 11 students (I know it is small a group) and sending an en mass email could lead to a long thread of responses that can be confusing to see the flow of the conversation. I can only imagine how challenging that would be with a class of 20 or more students!!!  There would be times I simply want to share FYI information and not expect a response. By doing so an email doesn't always allow me to know if the students received it or seen it. After one month of teaching, I decided to join the private Facebook group page which one student created for our class. I realized the students in today's world are social-tech people and I should embrace that community. Many students may be open to communicate with other students via some social media platforms to enhance their learning abilities and/or develop social learning relationship. Once I joined the Facebook page, immediately some students wanted to add me to their Facebook Friends list, I decided to wait until I felt it was comfortable (I did accept their requests close to Christmas). I am thankful my personal Facebook is limited in what I share! Overtime, I accepted the fact communicating with students via Facebook was the most effective and convenient form of connection! I provided updates, preparation for the next lesson, or anything that was not mentioned in the class was posted on the Facebook, and general information relating to the lesson such as a YouTube video of cardiovascular system. Also, what I love about it is that I can tell who seen the message and if anyone has not seen it within 48 hours, I would send them a private message either via email or Facebook emails. The reason I chose 48 hours because I noticed many of my students have Facebook app on their smartphones or tablets which they frequent to on  a regular basis.  Some cases a student may be busy or away from the phone for a long period of times, and I feel it is  a good idea to inform them there is a posting on Facebook and please respond as soon as possible. That usually works for me. Also, the layout of responses after my post, is often clear, fluid, and easy to understand the flow of the conversations. Honestly, I absolutely love communicating to my class via Facebook when I am not teaching in class, I would post at least once a week which I think it is plenty for my class. Other instructors may need to post regularly depending on the education style.

Some instructors may find Facebook is not the best social platform for them to communicate with students. Perhaps Pinterest or Instagram.

Pinterest is a collection of ideas from Pinterest fans who share them via blogs, websites, online articles of ANY categories beneath the sun, ranging from antiques to finding a baby names starting with "z". I personally enjoy Pinterest for recipes and perhaps an educator in culinary industry would create Pinterest account to share their own personal recipes and students can follow accordingly to the curriculum. 


Instagram is solely personal photos or photos of something such as quotes, nature, hobbies and travelling. Instagram is often shared by individuals or business. However, I feel Instagram could be used in education for many reasons such as photography, finding 
                 images for assignments, or posting images relating to the subjects.

Blog is another great platform to connect with students. Perhaps students could create blogs or online journal-like entry, where instructors can see the students' perspectives on the  subject or course and to enhance healthy educator and learner relationship, instructor could provide a comment or feedback. Instructors can also share their blogs if they feel it is relatable to the subject they are teaching. Some instructors are open to share other interests or hobbies (outside of their teaching profession) and students have the option to follow due to their similar personal interests. 

LinkedIn is another social media platform which is like an online resume however many people  are customizing the page by posting blogs, tips, or online articles relating to their professions. LinkedIn may be useful for professional relationship between the educator and the learner especially if both are in the same industries.  Similarly to Facebook, one can put as much information on LinkedIn and a student or instructor can look into LinkedIn for additional information based on work experiences, education, and hobbies or interest. 

Twitter is another option of communicating to the students using a few characters. 

There are variety of social media platforms on internet and it is up to the instructor/teacher if they want to communicate with the students through sources like Facebook. Some cases the instructor and teacher may be forced to do so. A good suggestion is to create more than one account for Facebook where you have control of the audience and have effective communications with the students. Also I would suggest to those who are attempting to try connecting with students, pick one or two social media platform to become comfortable with it.  I think Facebook group page is the best  one to begin  as it is the one of the popular social media connections. Once the instructor  embraces the concept and idea of communicating with the students, the educator can add on more social media platforms if needed.

I provided some links below that were shared by the online-classmates in my PIDP 3240 course. I hope you find the links very interesting as I certainly did.

This shows the consensus of Yay or Nay for teachers to communicate with students via Facebook. There are very good insights to both sides.
 http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-teachers-and-students-be-friends-on-facebook

 Whether it is your first time or a regular activity as an instructor, this link provides a list of ideas how to utilize Facebook with your students.. Some ideas may be great, others you may  ponder if it is beneficial to utilize to your students.
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/05/21/100-ways-you-should-be-using-facebook-in-your-classroom-updated/

This article discussing about whether technology is effective in post-secondary education. 
http://ela-newsportal.com/social-media-Facebook-higher-education/ 

References
www.facebook.com
www.pinterest.com
www.instagram.com
www.twitter.com 
www.linkedin.com
http://ela-newsportal.com/social-media-Facebook-higher-education/ 

Podcasts, Webinars, and TedTalk as Educational Tools

As instructors, facilitators, and trainers we are ambitiously trying to find media sources that could assist our students to understand the subject effectively.  For some instructors, it could reduce lecture time and create more time for in-class active learning activities. For others, particularly online education, not only it reduces lecture time but engage students to connect with the courses on computer or tablets.

In today's world, we have a bazaar of media educational sources and I would like to introduce 3 useful educational media tools that could enhance our students learning abilities.

1. Podcasts: This is a new concept for me as a student and a teaching assistant. According to the digital dictionary of Merriam-Webster it defines podcast as "a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format to be downloaded automatically over the Internet". Another way of explaining podcast is that it is a per-recorded talk or video by anyone such as yourself, a businessperson, a subject matter expertise, or a stay-at-home parent, and it can be downloaded and/or broadcasted on the internet. And the listener can play the podcast as often they like or need.
Podcasts are effective for students who learn better by listening. They can listen to podcasts on their smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops. Podcasts allow students to replay as often they can to understand the content. Some cases podcasts can provide more examples or analogies which an instructor may not be able to to do during online or in-class because of time management or the amount the of content needs to be executed over the course of the lesson or program. 
There is an increase of podcasts that provide both visual and auditory presentation.  Podcast is great tool to be played at anywhere and anytime: on transit, in the car, at home, at the library, or running on the treadmill.

This link is an example of collaboration of podcasts relating to education.

https://player.fm/featured/education-tech

Webinar: This media tool is fantastic for audiences who like visual, auditory, and active learning. Webinar is abbreviated for web-based seminar and can be used for presentation, lecture, workshops, or training session using video-conferencing software on the Internet. Webinar is often presented at real-time meaning you can participate during a live session over the Internet. Many training sessions or workshops provide webinars for students anywhere on the planet and they can access them from their smartphones, tablets, and computers. Webinar is a great tool for information session and interaction. There may be times an audience member may not be able to attend a webinar, fortunately they can always access to it in the archived section of the website. The downside is they would not be able to participate in real time. I came across this website relating to education and uses many webinars. Hopefully you find it it useful.

http://edtechteacher.org/webinars/
 

TED Talks: This online media tool is making waves! It has a thousands of online videos lasting from 5 to 18 minutes of talks presented by speakers who are experts in their fields or interests. TED began in 1984 and is a non-profit organization whose goal is to share short impactful speeches ranging from business, sciences, health, education and many more to online audiences. This is a superb educational tool because of the diversity of topics. This a perfect media approach if an instructor want to introduce to the students about ideas, concepts, information, or simply topics related to the subject they are learning. Once again, like webinars and podcasts, anyone can access to TED Talks via smartphones, tablets, and computers. Below is the link to the website and browse as many videos that interest you. Some of the speakers may leave you hungry for more!

https://www.ted.com/talks 

References

https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/podcas
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Webinar.html



 








 

Hybrid Classroom vs Flipped Classroom

Hybrid Classroom and Flipped Classroom


When I was a kid (which was not long ago), many movies were created in futuristic era and I remember thinking our world will not be surrounded with so much technology in a million year from now. Well, that many millions sped into within few years! Technology slowly creeped into my childhood and now for my personal use, I would  immerse into many social platforms such as texting, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and blogging. However, I did not foresee that the social media platforms could be applicable to our education. I always thought technology would be more prevalent in business, military, and medical industries but like many other industries, education needed to follow the technological trends to provide latest skills  and information to the new generation of learners. That being said, one of the latest trends in education is Hybrid classroom and Flipped classroom.

Hybrid Classroom is a situation where a higher education learner enrolls in a course or program that utilized a combination of online learning and in-class or traditional classroom setting. In some cases it is known as "blended learning". A hybrid classroom is a detailed, planned, and organized sequences of instructions and online learning materials or activities. For example, I am employed at a vocational school that is a distance online learning program. The school is geared for those who are interested in becoming Registered Massage Therapist. In addition to the online component, the students have a choice to attend school weekly, some weekends, or monthly depending on their lifestyles. Some are full time worker or parents and weekends would be best for them. Some students live outside the city or province, would register the monthly class, and others would opt for weekly. Whichever the schedule students choose to register in, they must attend the school 4 days per month for two years for in-class instructions and learning. The rest of the time they do the homework on their own via online, textbooks, module binders, websites, and practicing massage skills on their family and friends. This program is suitable for motivated and committed individuals who can balance their time between their personal, professional and student lives.

Hybrid classroom is a new and growing trend and many people seem to like this concept for many reasons.

Pros:

1. a reduction of travel time
2. self-paced to do their homework and learn the materials
3. flexibility in their lifestyles
4. learners do not have to sit in class for long periods of time
5. instructors minimize their lecture time,
6. instructors provide active-learning assignments such has journals, discussion forums, case studies, reports, online group activities, blogging, create a video or power point presentations, and online quizzes.
7. reviewing anything posted online as often they like such as discussion forums, podcasts, and videos

Hybrid classroom may have the best qualities of both world of learning and instructions, there are some disadvantages particularly for the learners:

Cons:

1. slow learning progression
2. not connecting with the active learning materials
3. overwhelmed with online work
4. apprehensive of computer
5. limited face-to-face interaction with other students and instructors 
6. poor time management
7. weak organization skills
8. may not be involved in discussion forums as well as in class

To sum it up Hybrid Classroom primarily consist  a blend of online and  traditional classrooms to enhance the learners' learning experience and growth into a skilled adult in their interested fields

Flipped Classroom is another concept that can be confusing with Hybrid Classroom because there is a computer involved and a traditional classroom as well. However,the difference is that it is categorized as instructional tool for elementary and high school.   Originally it was designed to have lectures condensed in short online videos for students who missed school for the day.  The students who were absent can catch up by watching the online lecture video at home and are caught up in their in-class lessons. Eventually many subject matter expertise teachers were adopting this idea because this reduce lecture time and maximize more hands on learning activities. It was a phenomenal success at secondary level because teachers were able to talk and assess every individuals in their classrooms and observe them progress successfully. The students (both introverts and extroverts)were involved in the subjects and asking more questions which noticeably becomes a student-learning center education. The students are enriching their learning progression.

                                                               Retrieved from yahoo images: http://amiroh.web.id/mari-beralih-ke-flipped-classroom/

Flipped Classroom concept has great many advantages. 
 
Pros:

1. student-centered learning
2. student collaboration increase
3. lectures are available online
4. parents engaged and can assist their children if needed
5. reduce lecture time in class
6. more time for hands on learning activities in class

Even though Flipped Classroom has a good success rate, there were some disadvantages that need to be considered.

Cons:

1. students have no access to computer at home
2. students may have to stay after school longer than expected
3. students may not be prepare to participate in-class activities  since did not watch online lectures beforehand
4. not all students can learn online effectively
5. if all subjects are flipped classes, the students need to be with computer for longer amount of time per day
6. some teachers are technology-illiterate and unable to create their own online lecture videos.
7. relying on another teacher's online lecture videos that may not be in-sync with the current teacher's teaching style.

Flipped Classroom is great for elementary and high school education and also for students to be familiar with online education as for many who want to continue to higher learning will easily transition to advanced technology infused education.

I hope you are enlightened with the two concepts. For additional information, please refer to my references below.

References:

http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/hybrid-education.html
http://education.seattlepi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom
http://educationnext.org/the-flipped-classroom/
http://www.teachthought.com/uncategorized/10-pros-cons-flipped-classroom/

Digital educational souurces I've used so far.

                                              credit: Yahoo images

Since I started PIDP 3240 in the beginning of 2016, I tried to use and apply some of the digital educational sources for my teaching and learning purposes. 

 Some of you noticed that I shared blogs and interesting websites on the VCC-School of Instructor Education Facebook page.  I created a Twitter account something I thought I would despise. Now the feeling went  down a notch...I'm still not sure about Twitter but I'll keep the account till the course is over. I participated e-communication with my students on our class' private Facebook page and I absolutely love this. Also, I am incorporating videos for my lessons either in class time or uploading on my class' private Facebook page. I don't do power points presentations however the school I teach at have power point presentations saved on the desktop and I pick and choose a few slides to show to the class, and both students and I felt it was perfect for their learning styles. Not too much and not too little.

As I am doing my assignments for PIDP 3240, initially I was overwhelmed and I think it was mainly coordinating my life and school schedule. At the time I felt the online discussion cumbersome and kept me on the computer too long! By the 3rd of week, I got the grasp of the assignments and became comfortable setting up accounts with Twitter, Blogger, and Oovoo. Simultaneously, I incorporated many of the online links for this course and my class. I think the whole point is to become familiar with digital educational tools and decide which is more applicable for me. I think it's best to try them all and then go from there. One of my goals is to integrate podcasts which I never tried and check out learning video games that is suitable for my massage therapy students.I do not know of any online video games specifically for my profession as an R.M.T, I am open to suggestions.

 Here are the few links I shared lately and perhaps some of you might find it useful in your studies or teaching. Maybe the topics do not interest you but the presentation of the online sources might pique your interest:

https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/itc/hs/medical/anatomy_resources/anatomy/pelvis/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvbmbDdtzJI

http://globalnews.ca/news/2490589/heart-failure-rates-rising-in-canada-heart-and-stroke-foundation/