They made my day!

Twice yesterday, students came into my office to formally thank me for the help I gave them during 1:1 research appointments. Topics they were searching for, "traumatic brain injury" AND football; sociological impact of cross-cultural marriage; required locating resources they could understand, access and investigate thoroughly in order to write a 5-10 page research paper. Few of the students at Reedley College make appointments ahead of time, they come in usually when they are in a panic. This was the case with these two students; and because I had not prepared for them ahead of time, I continued to search long after they were gone off to class. Subsequently, I emailed them later with the results of my searches, providing keywords to search, and locating materials avaialbe on our shelves. I want the students to know that their work is meaningful to me and their taking the time to ask for help will garner them more help.

It really made my day for them to make the effort to stop in and offer their thanks and express how our sessions made a difference in their work. Both received high scores and felt that they were going to finish the courses with excellent grades. This is music to a teacher's ear; to know that the time spent helped a student to learn research techniques, ask thought-provoking questions, and enjoy the process of discovery.

Research, critical thinking, and Instruction

Students learning to research are often faced with with the dilemma of how to think critically about their basic query, what do they want to know and how to they search for the answers. First and foremost their search behavior determines the results they find. If students don't care about the topic, or find no relevancy or immediacy, why do it? So what?
I appreciate that professors often will allow students to research topics of their own choosing, however unimportant it may seem to the professor; giving students the chance to stake a claim, find relevancy in their search, and search a variety of sources is good practice. Important to that search is conversation and dialogue about it for the student to clarify and express their interest and reasoning for the research in the first place. Upon having these conversations with students, I have found an underlying desire to solve a problem they have experienced or stand up for an issue they believe in. Gone are the days of the pro/con debate over abortion, marijuana legalization, or the benefits of same-sex marriage, not only because professors have adamantly refused to read any more such papers, but also because professors have required students to do a bit of thinking, and perhaps should require more of that.
Is critical thinking lost on the digital native? Is the ability to post anything anyone wants online, and retrieve anything anyone wants causing a "so what?" attitude in research? Even about topics they care about? Many of today's college students are unconcerned about issues not of their choosing or not "liked" by them. They seem more intent on just finishing, doing good enough work, to be through, and to move on...to what or where is yet to be determined.

Teaching

The thought of retirement must have frightened me, not being useful, spending my days at the sewing machine or computer, gaining weight! So I offered to help out rural schools, and now I'm in Karluk, at the southwest end of Kodiak Island this week, subbing for the elementary aide. It is fun to work with students in reading, science, Alaska History and math, especially when their needs are diverse and their skills varied. How to make learning fun as well and meaningful and useful is the quandary I always mull over, and ask myself, am I making a difference?
The students are respectful, joyous and a pleasure to work with, as are their teachers, Russ & Claudia Scotter. I'm learning something new every day myself. Do I want to return to elementary teaching? IT's exhausting and often stressful, but I find I want to stick around and see how they progress! More soon!

Tutorial creation for Heritage Quest Online

My tutorial sessions took awhile: I began creating a podcast-tutorial to use Heritage Quest Online, first by capturing a live search on Jing, reminding myself why a storyboard script and rehearsal are so important, after 6 hours, gave up on that working well. Then I captured the part of every screen shot (shift-cmd-4) I wanted)= of every step in using a complete search, saved in iPhoto, created a Garage Band enhanced podcast, imported and placed the pictures. but the small size of the graphics was maddening.
So I surfed around to the other participants in the Digital class, and thought, "I might as well give Clarify-It a try" and while it took two hours, it was a wonderful way to create a tutorial, something I've been doing often this year as an ed-tech who often trains teachers to use new technology. This software would be useful for this purpose.
The promise of being able to save it to Drop Box was the only thing I was unable to accomplish, perhaps that is in the paid version. I saved it as a pdf and created a Clarify-It account for them to host my tutorial. What is really nice is that when I wanted to edit the tutorial, it allowed me to do so, and provided the same link as the first upload, just changed one sentence.
The link is; http://geotechlibrarian.clarify-it.com/d/m2x9t4

Moodling Around

Using Moodle as a course delivery system is quite interesting, while not replacing real-time, face-to-face contact, it is a wonderful way to give and get documents, share resources, administer quizzes, upload content, and many other things. So much easier (& cheaper than Blackboard),  using it in teaching Alaska History for Educators has helped me learn more about Moodle, and value its strengths. Tomorrow I am to to train teachers how to use it, so it will become even more important to learn how to use it. Some teachers do not want to learn another system, interface or web-based teaching tool. I can't say I blame them, with all of the user-unfriendly programs that ae a part of their day, this is one more burden. We will try to make it fun, bring candy...games...puppies...

Technology Training

The Ed Tech team has been immersed in training for the past two weeks. From Digital Storyboarding, podcasting, and using the math tools on the Mac. Learning quite a lot every day!

Join Me on a New Journey!

I return to this blog to post observations and reflections about teaching and learning in a new environment. In addition to working as an educational technologist for Kodiak Schools, I am starting a new journey as a teacher: teaching adults! Spring Semester, I will be teaching Multicultural Studies course and in the Fall, 2012, Alaska Studies. Both of these courses are for new teachers needing to meet the State of Alaska's requirements for a teaching credential.
I also have a new job as an ed tech, and get to travel to rural sites again. This week Akhiok, where we hiked up a hill to gain this gorgeous view!
The students were wonderful geographers naming sites, and helping us tell the poisonous berries from the edible ones.