Donna Marqués

I don’t know about many of you, but I felt a bit overwhelmed with the reading.  It offered so many choices on different software and programs to use; but like anything else,  trial & error!

Regarding images and copyright:  woo!  I never look to see if my images are copyrighted, I just place them into my documents.  I will now search for “labeled for reuse” images.

I uploaded an existing PPt to slideshare.  I downloaded audacity on to my computer and created an Mp3 to narrate my powerpoint.  In order to get it into the Mp3 format, I had to download an additional piece of software called LAME or something like that 🙂 .

Next, I uploaded the Mp3 up to slideshare… it sure would be nice if slideshare had this feature (recording audio) embedded into the program….  Next came the task of syncing the audio with my ppt.  Not as easy as it would appear… the sycronization workspace did not move along with me.  Maybe it was my computer being slow, but I got frustrated real fast…  I decided to post a help question on the Fb page to see if anybody else has had a similar issue.  I went back to it after taking a break, and low & behold….  I figured it out 🙂  My Ppt did not upload nicely, the spacing is all off on it….not quite sure why.  Maybe it has to do with the settings.  Does anyone know why this would happen? See slideshow below:

This week has been fun… looking forward to next week 🙂

Donna

Hello colleagues!

I am so excited to start our new semester, especially since I found out that I will be spearheading the new online program in World Languages at my college!  Exciting, but a little scary at the same time!  I will offer the first online Spanish class in the fall.  From there, I will add a new level of Spanish every semester so that students can take the entire 4 semester series online…  so this semester I will focus on building my course.

This week’s reading was short & sweet!  (just the way I like it 🙂 ) When I went on to Flickr, I remembered that I had been there once before… many moons ago.  The site has changed a bit which made it frustrating for me to annotate my darn photo…  but I figured it out.  Check it out…  I uploaded a photo of beautiful St. Croix, where I spent a week last December.  I didn’t bother messing with Mbedr based on the fact that it wouldn’t work correctly in this blog, but it’s a great resource to have for future reference. 

Looking forward to learning a lot with you all.

Happy onlining!!

Donna

Week 1:  I set up my blog and I am ready to start the course! I could tell it was still warm back then because I placed a picture of the beach as my blog banner : ).

Week 2: I feel this is one of my best posts. I set up the skeleton of my online course in this post.

Week 3: I was challenged to think about my guiding force this week.  I was also reminded to speak to colleagues about a couple of issues.  I still need to do this.

Week 4: Another great post, I really got into the development of my online course with specifics about intoductions, lectures, activities, group & pair work, as well as assessment.  This will be a kwy post in developing my class.

Week 5: The interactive syllabus, I love this and am excited to create mine!

Week 6: I learned how to embed a video into my blog.  Cool!

Week 7: Had a light bulb moment about creating community in my online class. 

Week 8: I learned that I love voicethread!  I’m using this in my course for sure.  I also revisited my wikkis.

Week 9: I learned about Diigo which is cool.  I remembered why I don’t like second life.

Week 10: I learned about using Blogs for teaching online.  I’m not sure I’m 100% convinced.  I think it’s because I don’t like this wordpress site at all.  It’s slow and buggy at times!  Need to explore other blogging sites…  or just use Bb.

Week 11: Refreshed my memory on copywriting.

This assignment was great, it made me revisit topics I wrote about over the last 3 months.  Naturally, I forgot how brilliant I was!  (haha)  These will be great resources to come back to when we start to build our online classes.

“See” you all in January and thanks to the whole POT crew for your guidance & knowledge!  ¡Hasta pronto!

I’m really glad we got the chance to read about this topic.  I have been to other workshops on copyrighting and I always thought that if the source was confined to my Blackboard site, I was following the law.  This seems to be more or less the case, but the law is vague and leaves much room for interpretation.

Since I teach language, I tend to use a lot of authentic material from all over the web.  I am going to be much more careful about correctly siting from here on out.  I have always had the attitude that since I am using the information for teaching, nobody would “come after me.”  I now that see that that is not the case.

Lisa’s Slidecast:

I love the visual map that Lisa created to get you thinking about “why” you want to use a blog?  What is the end result you are looking for? Anotherwords, what is your pedagogical goal?

Commenting: I think I need a rubric on commenting…  I don’t know about many of you, but sometimes I read your blogs and all I have to say is “great idea!”  Maybe I’m just tired, old and lazy….  but sometimes, that’s all that comes to mind!

Ruth Reynard’s “Avoiding the 5 most common mistakes…”  is a great summation of what happens when instructors don’t think about why they are doing certain activities.  It’s a great reminder for all of us!

 Jim’s First Friday:

I never thought of the fact that almost everything on the web today is really a “blog.”  Commenting and interacting is essentially a blog! 

I attended this workshop the first time around, but it did me good to listen to it again.  I forgot how exciting the world of blogging can be!!

I think blogging is a must for my online Spanish class, I want to see students interacting in español.  I have see quite a bit of interaction on my Facebook page that I recently created for my students.  It is so exciting to see them interact in the target langauge!!

 Engrade:

Another course management system?  I am still using my “old” grading program “Making the Grade,” because it is easy and I know it well.  Everybody keeps telling me to “just use the Blackboard grade book.”  Engrade looks interesting… but I’m not going there! :/

Google site: 

I created my google site… but I’m not quite sure what the point of it is??  Just to have another webpage with my information on it?  I fear having too much “stuff” to maintain…  Bb, college website, blog, e-mail,  ahhhhhhhh!!!  Tooooooo muuuuch infoooooormaaaaation!!!

Diigo!

This is a great tool for annotating webpages.  This would work great for me both personally and professionally. 

I have pages and pages full of bookmarks and I constantly refer back to them and can’t remember why I bookmarked them.  To be able to make myself a sticky note to remember why is fantastic!

Academically speaking, it would be great to assign students a web page to go to and have little sticky notes placed in strategic places that would allow me to point out certain things to students. 

Do students have to have Diigo accounts in order to see my notes?   Or can I share a special url with them? 

Second life:

I don’t like this.  I find it cumbersome and confusing….  just sayin! 

Thanks for reading!

Donna

So I’m a couple of weeks behind… 

I posted to Pilar’s voicethread on time though!  I am finding that I like voicethread more and more!  I like how you can click on someone’s video right from the topics page and see what they have to see.  It seems clear, clean and easy to me!

Group Activity Areas:

I have used wikis quite a bit to monitor group work out of class.  Students like it’s easy to use platform and I like it’s easy to use grading system.  I have used pbworks.  It’s easy to use and best of all, FREE!!

Online Grade Book:

I am currently using Making the Grade as my grading program, it allows me to post me grades to Bb.  My goal is to start using the Bb gradebook.  Students are used to it and it eliminates a step for me.

Social Media:

I am currently using Fb with my f2f class.  I have noticed that it is a great tool for students to get quick feedback.  They have also been posting pictures of themselves doing cultural activities around town for extra credit.  They came up with that idea and I love it!

Virtual Worlds:

I went to a workshop on Second Life…  I’m not really convinced at the moment.  It seems like an awful lot of work!  I barely have enough time in this life, let alone a second one!  LOL

I’m so excited to blog about this topic!!  I had never really thought about the implications of “not” having a community in my online course.  I figured, “Just show up, figure out what you need to do, and get it done people!!”  WRONG!!! 

As I watched Pilar’s workshop, I had a light bulb moment!  My f2f classes are so successful because I naturally create community within the classroom.  I am a super open person and share a ton with my students.  I share so many of my “insert foot in mouth” experiences…  this not only makes students laugh, but they also open up and share personal experiences as well.  What is this??  COMMUNITY!!! 

So how does one take these positive experiences and transfer them on to this new, crazy medium called “online learning?”  It is vital that we do this….  videos?  synchronous discussion? texting? facebook?

I remember taking an online class (ONCE & NEVER AGAIN!!) because all we did was read and write papers.  I absolutely HATED it.  Why did I hate it?  Lack of community, esthetics, warmth & communication….  do I want that for my students?  uh…. no!!! 

The reading didn’t spark my interest much!  I would like to be able to send text messages to students rather than e-mails, Bb doesn’t allow for this yet.

I think next weeks readings will be more interesteing as it addresses group activity areas, etc.

Look forward to making some videos to welcome my students and using voiceboards!!

¡Hasta pronto!

Internet skills quiz score= 11/12 NICE!!!!!  🙂

Take a look at this fun Spanish video for intro students:

Continue reading →

The interactive syllabus!

Since I was lucky enough to actually attend Lisa’s online Eluminate session back in 2010, I have actually already used many of these ideas on my f2f syllabus which is listed on Bb.   

This is the way I envision my course menu to look:

• “Start Here”- course intro video
• “Week 1: Due xx-xx-xxxx” – interactive syllabus.  This will have all the videos/assignments/quizzes/etc. with direct links to everything.  Students will have anything they need for week 1.
• “FAQ: Course Policies”  –  This will answer “housekeeping” type questions.
• “FAQ: Course Materials” – Course material info.
• “FAQ: Technical Difficulties” – This will answer technical problems.
• “FAQ: My grade”  – Summary of grading policies.
• “FAQ: Personal questions” –  ways to contact me.

Perhaps this will change a bit… but this is how I see things looking now based on the readings, the Eluminate sessions & Pilar’s screencast.