comm-week

= Communication: Weekly =

Generally speaking, I provide at least two messages a week to assist the students in organizing what they have to accomplish over the next seven days. I begin with a very specific message that outlines the various tasks for the week. For example:

//Welcome to Week 3 everyone... It seems that folks are getting their blogs and RSS readers figured out with only a few minor glitches. This week we continue our look at generational differences. WEEK 3 is the second and final week for UNIT 2. This means that you should go through the items located in the Week 3 folder, and once you are finished that you should view the INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS presentation - which will provide a summary of Unit 2.

In Week 3 there are several activities. Let me outline them for you:

Blogging - complete the two readings - post a blog entry in response to the prompt posted at the IT6230 - Internet in the Classroom (Winter 2010) blog by Thursday - comment on two of your fellow students' entries by Sunday - respond to anyone who leave a comment on your blog

-> note that there have been a couple of new blogs added to the discussion forum, so make sure you add these to your Google Reader

Facebook - create a Facebook account - use the search feature to search for me (Michael Barbour) and for Jason Siko - add both of us as friends - once you have added me as a friend, I will invite you to join the IT6230 - Winter 2010 group

Ning - create an account at the MACUL ning - add both me and Jason as friends - join the WSU IT group

Also a reminder that we will be meeting synchronously (i.e., in real-time) on Thursday, 28 January at 8:30pm. To join this synchronous class, login to Blackboard and click on TOOLS, then WIMBA CLASSROOM, then MAIN ROOM. If this is your first time using Wimba, you should click on SETUP WIZARD on the right hand side. This is a tool that will determine if your computer is set-up to handle Wimba and, if it isn't, it will provide you with links and information on how to fix the situation so you can use Wimba. The setup wizard will take you about 10 minutes if everything is fine, so make sure to do this prior to 8:30pm on Thursday. If you have used Wimba before or after you have run the setup wizard, you can click on ENTER ROOM on the left-hand side of the screen to join the class. If you are unable to attend on Thursday, don't worry. The session will be recorded and you can watch the recording at your leisure.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

MKB//

Note that I have provided a list of tasks that students could, in theory, print out and cross off as they complete them. I also continue to use the CAPS to indicate where they would need to click to find things in Blackboard.

Around the middle of the week, I will send out a reminder of what the students should be working on. For example:

//Well, we are a little past the mid-point of Week 3. Thanks to those folks who were able to join me tonight in the Wimba classroom. For those who weren't able to join us, you can access the recording by:

Click on TOOLS, then WIMBA CLASSROOM, and then underneath the link for MAIN ROOM you should see "Main Room - 01/28/2010 20:37". If you click on that it will open up a recording of the class we just had.

As a reminder, you should have completed your blog post in response to my prompt by midnight tonight. Over the next three days you should leave comments on two of your fellow student's blog and respond to the people that leave comments on your blog.

If you have comment moderation turned on (and most of you do) - MAKE SURE TO APPROVE THOSE COMMENTS!

By Sunday also make sure that you have created your Facebook account friended Jason and I, and accepted the invitation to join the IT6230 - Winter 2010 group. You should have also created an account on the MACUL ning and friended Jason and I there, along with joining the WSU IT group.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

MKB//

Basically, this is simply a reminder about the main things that they should either have accomplished or continue to be working on.

As the semester progresses, I begin to move away from the listing of items and start using a more conversational style in these weekly messages. For example:

//Well, welcome to Week 7. We are getting near the end of the first half of the course. We have two weeks left in Unit 3 (i.e., weeks 7 and 8) and then we transition to content related to K-12 online learning.

For this week you're reading is Augar, Raitman and Zhou (2004), which can be found in the WEEK 7 folder in the UNIT 3 folder in the CONTENT in Blackboard. In that folder you will also notice additional content related to social bookmarking and a link for you to schedule your Dabbleboard meeting. As it states on the Doodle tool I use to schedule our meetings:

"Please select one or two times that you are available to meet me for a 30 minute conversation in Dabbleboard. Please note that you will need a minimum of speakers and a microphone or a headset for your computer. I will e-mail you with the specific date and time of our meeting based on your selections."

Meeting times begin on Wednesday and run through Saturday. Please sign up early, as I will not consider requests made with less then 24 hours notice (i.e., waiting until Saturday to sign up for a time later on Saturday or waiting until Friday night to sign up for a Saturday morning or afternoon slot).

Your discussion prompt for this week is entitled, "Judging the Quality of Wikis", and is available on the IT6230 - Internet in the Classroom (Winter 2010).

Finally, the main thrust of our activities this week is the Wiki Project. I will be sending out a separate e-mail with some additional guidance and information about the groups for you. Please note that I will not be sending out samples from previous years until the beginning of Week 8. It has been my experience that when samples are provided I get six carbon copies of the samples and no originally conceived or laid out submissions.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask Jason or myself.

MKB//

I also make sure that I send out information about assignments in separate messages, both to increase the amount of communication that the students receive from me and also to focus the students specifically on the graded assignment information. For example:

//Okay, while I think the assignment sheet is fairly straightforward for this assignment, let me take a few minutes to describe it because invariably each semester there are students that fail to complete the whole assignment.

The assignment is broken up into three parts.

Part 1

1. Go through the TEGIVS scenarios and take notes on each scenario using the NOTES SHEET as a guide. These are notes, so they should not be full sentences and paragraphs, but they should be comprehensive. The NOTES SHEET is a general guide designed to assist you will all of the scenarios, as such some of the prompts may not be applicable to all of the scenarios.

2. Complete each of the TASKS at the end of each of the five scenarios.

Part 2

1. Complete question 1 based on the demo course.

2. Complete question 2 twice: once for the Iowa Online Learning case study and once for the Michigan Online Teaching case study.

Part 3

1. Write the half page response to each topics using material from the Converge articles (i.e., a total of a page).

If you haven't looked over the assignment sheet yet, than you probably want to do so to make sure you see the connections between that assignment sheet and the instructions above.

As always, if you have any questions feel free to ask Jason or myself.

MKB//