Social Networking for Spanish

I continue to experiment in other areas of teaching Spanish online. This includes social networking, primarily through Facebook.

This has evolved somewhat. When I taught my first online courses just a year ago, I made it a requirement for all of my students to keep up a Facebook page in Spanish. They received a grade for updating their profile, status and comments in Spanish. Great idea in theory, but very hard to put into practice and keep up with it while still having a personal life. There were two main problems with this: (1) the upkeep on my end and (2) many students not favoring such an assignment.

1. As I was designing the courses, I was also creating the assignments for what I expected of them on Facebook. When students learned to say their names and where they are from, I had them linked to their classmates so they could post introductions to each other. Likewise, when students learned how to express a few likes and dislikes, I would then have them post this on their profile. What I didn't consider at the time, was, how am I going to monitor all of this? Since the assignments are intermingling work between their own wall, my wall and those of their students, how was I supposed to track everything, for all 30 students per class? Nightmare! I came up with a Facebook Tracking page, where they would just copy and paste everything they posted. They submitted that, and I graded their work from this. This freed up more time for me to actually spend time on their pages networking with them. It still was a lot of work, though.

2. Since the majority of my students are non-traditional learners (i.e. adults), several of them were not familiar at all with Facebook, and there was a high learning curve just in that regard. Even though I tried to assure students that I would help them through it, there was a lot of anxiety, which became frustration because they were spending a lot of time trying to learn Facebook instead of Spanish. I did not want this. I did a survey at mid-term and found there was a lot of resentment about the Facebook requirement. One student stated that social networking should not be a requirement for the course, that this is what discussion boards were for. Another student claimed it was a privacy issue. I had told students that they create a virtual reality if they prefered, and didn't have to share any facts with people that they didn't want known. However, this bothered the student that she either had to give up her privacy or become a liar.

Even though there were a number of students who enjoyed the Facebook component, the overall attitude about it was not positive. I was a little saddened, because I love Facebook and I think it's fun and is a beneficial way to learn. But just because I love it doesn't mean I can expect all of my students to love it.

I have since found a compromise that I am content with and students don't feel uncomfortable with. I now make that a voluntary portion of the course. It is solely used as a vehicle for me to relay course reminders, post sites that I would call course "teasers," communicate with students who want to communicate with me there (through chat or private message), and then social networking. I have found that a good number of my students took me up on it, and some remain quiet, but others take full advantage of the offering. I also linked this Facebook account to my Twitter account, and made my Twitter account available to students as well. So, for the course reminders I would tweet those, and they are then available in my Twitter, but they are also copied to my Facebook wall to reach a larger number of students.

I still want more of my students to participate in social networking with me. I considered making it extra credit, but I am concerned with the amount of time I would be spending on that again. To make it extra credit, I would expect them to do more than just become one of my Facebook friends. But I am content with the way I am currently offering it, and am excited to brainstorm other ways I can use it to help my students learn.

Kagan meets Web 2.0

I have been busy, busy, busy getting everything prepared, updated, ready etc. for my fall courses. I am just beginning my second year teaching 100% online courses, and I can honestly say that it's become a professional obsession. I am feeling guilty when my husband "catches me" on the computer, trying to get all of my assignments and directions loaded into ecollege or D2L. It's strange to feel that way about something you get paid for, but there certainly are lines to be crossed between work and home life, even when those take place in the same house.

In addition to my online teaching assignments, I will be teaching one face to face Spanish course at a local community college. I am excited about adding a little more variety to the fall. I am excited to pull out some of my Kagan tricks (Spencer and Laurie Kagan, Kagan Cooperative Learning, 1994) again to get the students communicating and collaborating.

This method of learning came up in my mind again recently for a different reason. I am in the application/interview stage with another online school. This one will be quite a bit different, since I would meet my students once a week live through a web conference. This actually intrigues me to think of Web 2.0 tools and web-based learning with a bit of a new twist. Wow, I will actually have students online together! One of my first thoughts was... "what can I have them do so that they are interdependent and inter-accountable with peers? Cooperative learning! I began thinking of some of my old Kagan standbys in Spanish. Quiz-quiz-trade, where students quiz each other over given topics, then trade topics and move on to a new person to do the same thing. "Find someone who" is known as a great start of the year icebreaker, but in a language class I use it over and over again throughout the year, and just adapt it to the context I need. For example, when studying clothing... find someone who is wearing tennis shoes, find someone who doesn't like to wear skirts, find someone who is not wearing socks, find someone who owns more than 10 ball caps, etc. Of course, all of the language is in Spanish. These two Kagan structures are two of my favorites.

One of the steps in the interview process with this school is to teach a 7-10 minute realistic session of your content. I began thinking through some ideas, when it suddenly hit me that it may be possible to do cooperative learning in an online learning environment, even an asynchronous one. I began thinking about how discussion boards could be utilized as cooperative learning platforms, and how one could use a "Find someone who..." exercise in Spanish in a threaded discussion. I figured there must be more possibilities out there for other structures or cooperative learning techniques, and was interested in researching more. I did find one paper out on the internet that directly correlated specific Kagan structures to asynchronous learning. Absolutely applicable to what I was looking for! However, in searching for that resource again to reference it here, it is not loading for me. I will check back for it another time.

This was a bit of a revelation for me, and it turned into me thinking that if I were to ever pursue my Ph.D, that I would do so in instructional technology with my dissertation focus directly on cooperative learning possibilities in synchronous or asynchronous online learning environments. I almost feel that since I have my topic already chosen, that it is good motivation to one day pursue this further education. I am now extremely motivated to learn and study this, and perhaps synthesize something that can be used in my online Spanish courses. Even better, I would be greatly satisfied if my virtual colleagues out there could benefit from the ideas as well. I guess time will tell!

Speaking in an Online Language Class

I have been spending more time than I hoped, designing one of my courses for a particular school I teach with. I changed textbooks for this school from last semester to this one. I didn't realize that, by doing that, I was also taking away a speaking component that was already built in with the previous text. I want to create voiceboards where, just like a written discussion board, students verbally respond to an oral post, and then comment on the posts of their classmates. Vista Higher Learning's Adelante Supersite provides an actual voiceboard powerd by Wimba. But I've changed to the "En Linea" program for other reasons. But the voiceboards are not present in En Linea. It is nice that there are several assignments in En Linea which have them recording their voices (ideally, they are supposed to find an epartner, but logistically that will be a nightmare so I won't require it.) But I want more authentic communication, hence, a voiceboard. I have recently been alerted to a nice looking program called voicethread.com. It's not exactly what I am envisioning needing for my class, but it provides some of its own really great qualities. I have an idea, which will either be a masterpiece or a disaster. Or I guess it could also fall somewhere in between. I have been using vocaroo.com for awhile now with students who submit their voice recordings to me in an email. My idea is to have them record their voice there, then paste it into the discussion board. Then can then listen and verbally post to each other right there in the discussion board of D2L, hence, my voiceboard. My fear is that the process will be choppy, going back and forth between D2L and Vocaroo. It shouldn't be too bad if students just open up a second browser and go back and forth between the two. So we will see how it goes. But until the course starts on August 30, I will continue to scour the internet for other possible tools to fit my goal!

How do I keep online students engaged?

A few random thoughts...

• Active learners are engaged learners. The very nature of online learning promotes learner-centered learning, as opposed to teacher-centered learning. This makes for an active, or engaged, learner. It is about what the students do, when they are ready to do it. They must take on an active role to completed the required assignments, not a passive role where they take notes during a lecture, not thinking about what they are writing down.
• Weekly email updates from the instructor and teacher participation in discussion boards, giving detailed, constructive feedback, etc. Basically, the teacher putting for the effort helps motivate the students to do their part, thus keeping them engaged.
• Social networking, such as Facebook and Twitter. For some students, these can be motivating factors which can create learner engagement.
• Keeping students knowledgeable of the routine... having clear expectations of what is to come provides clarity and comfort for students. Students who know what to expect from a course and an instructor don't feel sideswiped or overwhelmed by surprises. This helps maintain their engagement in the course.

Is online learning for everyone?

I found this great resource that discusses the myths of online learning. I think it is right on the money, and I am including it in my Welcome Letter for my students this fall:

http://www.educationonline.com/dispel-some-myths-about-online-learning


I am wondering if or when online classes will be deemed as rigorous and demanding as face-to-face ones. After teaching totally online classes for 2 semesters now, the sense I get from a good number of students is that my class is way harder or more demanding than other online courses they have taken. I think the same can be said for face-to-face courses. I mean, very rarely does the majority of my students breeze through my class with little effort. I can't think of one class I have ever taught that I didn't have a good number of students struggling to get through. There are different reasons for this struggling always, but the point is that online or face-to-face, learning a second language is daunting.

I have only taken one online course, and have done some training for one of the new schools I'll be working with online in the fall. I like online learning. I find it relaxing to be able to learn at my own pace, wearing my scrubbie clothes, in the comfort of my rocker recliner with the tv on for background noise. I also like to be able to take my time and re-read the lecture or watch the video again if something has trouble sinking in. I guess that is a reflection of my learning style. I know this is not true of everybody, though. I also am not sure this delivery of learning would have been good for me in high school. I don't think I was ready to hold myself accountable. Even a couple years into college, I'm not sure this type of class would have been for me. But now I think it's a pretty good way to learn, and not feel inhibited in the process. But this is me.

It is my experience as an online instructor that many students cut off their own foot in the process. If you are not coming to a class where you are forced to hear the announcements, then you darn-well better read my weekly announcements I email out. This past spring, I tried a little experiment, just to verify. I was suspicious that many students were not reading the emails I was taking time to write each week. I was getting way too many questions that I had already answered in those emails. So one week, in the middle portion of my weekly email, I inconspicuously placed a sentence "if you are reading this, please send me a reply and I will award you bonus points." I was stunned that only about half of my students did so. I was convinced at that point I'd been sending a lot of wasted emails to people who simply weren't taking the time to read them. Or maybe I shouldn't so harshly call them wasted, after all the other half were reading them. (Glass half full or half empty, right?)

As I finish my thoughts on this post, I'm not sure these struggles are all that different from face-to-face courses anyway. Thinking back to my high school teaching days, there certainly was a high percentage of students who were physically there with me as I was making those ever-important announcements. Though there thoughts were clearly somewhere else, which means they didn't hear my announcements either. No, it feels different, but really it's all just the same! My quest continues to find ways to get through to ALL of my students, no matter the learning platform!

No summer school for me!

I must admit, I am very glad I have the summer off from teaching. I was really hoping for a summer teaching gig, either online or if I could swing an on-ground local position, I would have taken it. As an adjunct, you only get paid while you are actually working. Crazy concept huh? I suppose it sounds strange I even mention it, but a huge perk of being a full-time employee of a public school system is that you get paid year-round even though you only work 10 months.

At any rate, I felt I was needing a serious break. Yes, even from online teaching. The flexibility is great, and I wasn't just aching for the last day of school to get here as I did when working full-time. But the online format presents new challenges. I have found that when students primarily communicate with you via email, they feel brave enough to tell you how they really feel. For example, I offered students an opportunity to redo an assignment, they just needed to request I reset it for them to make that possible. The assignment was due by Tuesday at midnight. I went to bed around 11, which was the time I last checked email. The next morning, I have an email from a student, sent at approximately 11:30, asking me to reset it for him to compelete again. Being that he missed the deadline of midnight, I responded saying that I did not intend to allow it, since the deadline had passed. He emailed back stating he was "disappointed" in me with that response. He claimed he didn't know that the redo also had to be done before the deadline. I guess for a college level course, I didn't feel I needed to spell that out, but perhaps I was wrong on that. He certainly let me know how he felt.

At the time, I was pretty upset about it. Negative emails from students to me means that I have failed them in some way, whether I'm justified or not. But I was just visiting with a fellow adjunct this morning, a friend of mine who is teaching this summer. She told me that one of her students was disgruntled about a decision she had made and therefore went over her head to her supervisor to formally complain. This supervisor took the time to register the complaint, and then overruled the instructor with what he thought was fair for the student. The instructor was not consulted, nor was there any teamwork in this decision. The student complained and the supervisor bent. I am a firm believer in following the proper chain of command. If a student has a problem with an instructor, that should be the first person to contact. If no resolution is made, then let's bring in the supervisor. But not vice versa!

So, I think back to my student from this past spring and it gives me new perspective. I am actually very glad that he chose to express his disappointment with me, to me, not to my supervisor. As far as I know, as an online adjunct instructor, I have not had a student go to my supervisor without first speaking with me. Actually, I don't even think I've had a student go to a supervisor, period. If so, nobody has alerted me about it!

So, being just after the 4th of July, I am beginning the descent of summer... getting ready for fall. I've been doing a lot of planning and making changes in my courses to hopefully improve them. I am getting excited to have students again!!! You have to take the bad communications from students with the good... and there certainly have been a lot of good. So I will take the bad.

Simplification... is that possible for me?

Oh wow. I just have so many thoughts running through my head about how to improve my online Spanish courses. I am frustrated because my students are not embracing the desire to learn another language. (What, they don't love the language as much as I do?) What it feels like they want is a quick in/quick out online class where they don't have to do a whole lot of application. I listened to students last semester as they were incredibly frustrated with the amount of work required on a weekly basis. I had always heard that in an undergraduate college course, a student should expect to spend 2-3 hours outside of class for every credit hour the class is worth. So for my 4-credit class, it shouldn't be unreasonable to spend 8-12 hours per week. And that isn't even including th 4 hours that would also normally be spent in classtime for a face-to-face offering. I started thinking that maybe this time frame was no longer accurate and that perhaps the model had changed. However, I am following a great blog by an online teacher, who re-quoted that exactly: 2-3 hours outside of class for every credit hour.



No, I am feeling validated about the amount of time my course requires for students. I have done my research. Reading that blog was a great find, and I've also polled a couple of the other professors at one of my schools and a fellow adjunct online teacher with my other school. It simply takes a lot of time to learn a language, there really is no way around it. But my goal now is to make sure I continue to offer the best online course I possibly can, with 2 semesters of experience now going to be under my belt.

I did have students voluntarily complete surveys near mid-term, so I can continue improving the course for next term. I have gotten some really good feedback from them that is helping drive my ideas for the future. I currently do not offer a discussion board assignment, well, at least not one that is required. I do offer an extra credit assignment in the form of a discussion board, and honestly, those are my favorite things to grade. But with Spanish, it is a little hard to create an additional assignment that won't eat up a bunch more of their time. Maybe for my level 2 classes, but level 1 would be difficult. One idea I have is to require students to pose weekly questions about course content, and then also go back in and respond to their classmates.

I also ideally want to incorporate more actual verbal communication, if that is even possible. Logistically, it would be a nightmare for me to grade any more than what they already do. But I want to re-vamp my oral assessments, making them more communicative in nature instead of just reading words and sentences from a page. Then, ideally, the grade for this would be more for understanding and less for grammatical correctness. I think I can save the grammar for the other requirements in the class.

These are the main ideas I have in reference to improvements in the classes. But I do have a few more brewing as well!