February's Session

In this session, "Talk to Me," two faculty members described how they have enlisted  the power of social media technologies to promote engaged student response.  Lisa Truax  (Art) began by sharing her experiences with Flipgrid, a video response tool from developers at the University of Minnesota.

The system is available free for a 3-week trial and then costs $60.00  for continuing use.  It may shared across a department and it is free to students.  Faculty send out questions and then students send back a video response within a 90 minute time frame.  Students can view and "like" each others responses as well.  Truax has used the system to track student responses to various arts activities that they are required to experience.  Not only is she easily able to insure that the students are attending the events, but the system also serves as a springboard for more discussion in the classroom.

Janel Schultz (Math) talked about how she is using Poll Everywhere, the classroom response system that incorporates mobile devices. In this system students use their cell phones to respond to various questions that Schultz puts out both during classroom periods and within the videos she creates for students to view outside of class as part of her "flipped" classroom activities.  Schultz uses the app to gauge student learning as well as to keep students engaged.  It also works to help Schultz determine if students are watching the required video homework; she imbeds a poll in the video and, while it primarily works to gauge student understanding of the math questions, it also lets her know who has been doing the homework and who will get the points for doing so.  When asked if there was ever a problem with students not having phones to respond with, Schultz said that her students all seemed to have a smart phone with them in her classes. Answers may also be sent via Twitter or web browsers and responses can be seen live on the web or in a PowerPoint presentation.



Missed the session?  View it here on Tegrity.

January's Session

In this session, "What Have You Done for me Lately," four faculty members described how they are using a variety of different e-portfolio programs to provide opportunities for students to document their achievements.  Dean Beckman (Communications) uses eFolio, a free portfolio resource for Minnesota residents, students, and workers, in two of his classes. Students use these programs as a way to market themselves to future employees.  Their work on these portfolios is part of their grade. One of Beckman's students, Jesus Martinez, demonstrated how he has used the program to effectively package his professional activities, his education, and his skills.

Trisha Karr and Mario de Calvo, both from the Psychology Department, use Google Sites, a structured wiki and web page creation tool, with their classes for portfolio development. Again the long term purpose of the tool is to help students market themselves to future employers.  The tool's  multi-tier permissions and accessibility feature (owner, editor, and viewer) insures that the students' work can be safely shared with instructors, classmates, and future employers. It has a presentation feature as well and allows for easy insertion of videos.

Lisa Truax (Art) demonstrated how her students use a variety of sharing apps such as ArtSite, which "combines a teaching Museum to spark an appreciation of global art and civilization with a Gallery and Portfolio where students display and share their own art and writing" and  Three Ring, in which students use mobile phones or iPads to take pictures of work or to record presentations and discussions. Her students also create their own web sites in their Web Design class and then use these sites to showcase the art work they have created while at SMU, again providing effective "resumes."

Missed the session?  View it here on Tegrity.