Shoe on the other foot

    I’m taking an online course myself right now, and I’ve been experiencing technical difficulties.  For example, when I temporarily halted work on a series of exercises, all my earlier work disappeared. Total frustration. Do I have to do all that work again?  Arggh!

    This is helping me remember what it feels like to my students when they can’t get something to work right online.  Most of the time, their problems come because they forgot the format of their userid (is it last name first or last name last?) or forgot their password.  Or both.  This is a problem they can solve – either by persevering, asking a friend, asking me in class, or emailing me.  If they can't login, they can still do the work on paper and hand it in.

    But there have been occasions, especially when I have tried out something new, when things didn’t work out as intended.  Here is the student trying to do the work – and can’t.  And it’s my fault.   This has made me super careful to test new ideas using test-student accounts. 

    Then there’s good old human error; last month I forgot to make a new vocabulary module visible, so students couldn’t work on it.  Oops!

    So I try to be charitable when the technology has done my students dirt.  Either I forgive the assignment (something’s not working) or just extend deadlines.  My students seem to think that’s fair.

Being tech support

    I wear all the hats in my program, including technical support.  The number one problem is forgotten passwords. Kids are at home trying to remember their password so they can do their homework; often they’ve also forgotten their login ID, even though I’ve made it identical to their login ID for school computers.  I then get student or parent emails asking for the password; as long as I can tell who is really emailing me, I reset the password and remind them of the userid by return email.  Kids also ask me at school.
photo © 1939 The Library of Congress | more info (via: Wylio)

     I did have one parent who tried to phone me at home at 8:15 PM (a number I never share, by the way) to demand her child’s password for work that was due the next day; I use my answering machine to screen calls and did NOT answer.  Students always have alternative ways of both finding the work (on the school-supplied webpage, Edline, and on the Moodle) and submitting it, so forgetting the password is not an emergency (and can’t be used as an excuse for not doing work). 

    One student has asked me repeatedly to reset his password, because he supposedly “couldn’t get on” but when I had him login right in front of me there was no problem.  I informed his parents and he’s no longer using that excuse. 

    Occasionally I get asked for clarifications, mostly via email.  When is something due again?  Where is the file (right after the directions…)  Kids also ask questions via discussion forums, but they tend to answer each other there.  A good thing, too, since I don’t check email after dinner, so kids who wait until the last minute are just out of luck.  (I’ve learned that nastygrams always come late in the day, and I prefer not to spend my evenings composing and re-composing responses.) 

    Since I’ve put the written directions at the very top of the Moodle,  I receive many fewer questions. 

    One of the interesting things about tech support is that it has gotten students, who tell me they “never” use email, to use email.  Of course, some email me a question and then forget to check their email for my answer…

Mock Trial - Blended and Fun

    We are engaged in our annual mock trial project.  We do a lot of in-class work in small groups preparing and having the trials.  We do a lot of reading/research/reflection online that complements what’s happening F2F.  While we’ve repeatedly lost class time to snow days, students have used the class Moodle to stay on target as much as they can.
photo © 2008 KeithBurtis | more info (via: Wylio)

     If you’re interested in how we do mock trial, I’ve attached the study guide and basic case materials for this year.  I divide each class into two trials.  Each half class takes on plaintiff and defense teams for one trial and then acts as the judge and jury for the other trial. 

    Snow days have cost us almost half the days we use for working in small groups to prepare for the trials.  Despite interruption after interruption, students are still remarkably prepared.  First, because students have had to be focused on the time they actually had; there has been no time for fooling around (yay, silver lining!)  Second, I had asked  students to explicitly discuss online how they would cope with a non-participant group member; this brought out some good strategies, encouraged proactive thinking, and even got some of the usual nonparticipants to think about what they needed to be doing.  Third, my students are motivated; they love this project-based learning unit. 

    This is problems from the real world; I use real cases that are working their way to the Supreme Court, using high interest topics like gender-segregated middle schools.  They get to play roles that grownups play (never, ever underestimate their interest in this). They have to struggle to read materials written for adults, but they persevere because they are interested.  They get to read laws that actually impact their lives (Title IX, for example) and relate their lives directly to the Constitution.  They also do a lot of writing that makes sense – questions for witnesses, opening statements to explain their case to the jury, online discussions about how to handle problems, reflections about what they hope to learn and what they do learn.  It’s also inherently dramatic – what kid doesn’t want to shout out, “I object!” 

    Snow days are now impinging on our ability to even have the trials, which is the topic of the next post.