Wimba Classroom connecting Calvin College to FL, NM and CA
Monday, April 11, 2011
People all across campus continue to find new and unique ways to use Wimba Classroom in their teaching and learning. Wimba Classroom is a set of web-based collaboration tools used for:
- video conferencing
- audio-conferencing
- application sharing
- sharing an interactive whiteboard
- chatting
Calvin’s education department is using Wimba Classroom to record, critique, and remotely support student teachers in southern California and New Mexico, as well as in a variety of locations in the Grand Rapids area.
Philosophy Professor Steve Wykstra and Nellie Kooistra, Department Assistant for the Nagel Institute, recently used Wimba Classroom to record 9-hours worth of lectures given in Florida. They exported the recordings (using MP4-based files) onto DVDs to give to their 20+ attendees from all across the United States.
If you have found an interesting way to use Wimba Classroom, share it with us in the comments area!
To learn more about Wimba Classroom, visit the links below. (To login, click on the Participant Login button if prompted to do so and/or enter your first name and press Enter)
Wimba Teach information & tutorials
Wimba Design information & tutorials
Posted in: Best Practices: Faculty Highlights
Wimba Classroom is taking off at Calvin!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
CIT’s Teaching & Learning Team is pleased to report we’ve had thirty-eight faculty and staff members trained on how to use the Wimba Classroom set of tools. Many of these same faculty members have decided to move forward with this set of tools, which include web-based videoconferencing, audio-conferencing, an interactive whiteboard, chatting features, application sharing and more.
Here are a couple of faculty who are currently integrating Wimba Classroom for various applications:
- Steve Wykstra (Philosophy) is using Wimba Classroom to record his lectures in real-time. Students who were missing—or even students who were in class—can access archived recordings of his classes to review and reflect upon what was covered.
- Susan Felch is using Wimba Classroom to interacting with thirty-eight different Lilly Graduate Fellows from various colleges and universities throughout the nation.
- Shirley Roels, Yvonne Ferwerda, and Steve Kline have hosted several webinars (spread throughout various locations) for the Van Lunen Fellows.
Posted in: Academic Software: Faculty Highlights
Marj Terpstra: Christian perspectives on teaching
Thursday, January 15, 2009
In Marj Terpstra’s Fall EDU 202-203 class each student was required to write a paper exploring his/her Christian perspective on teaching. The main objective of the assignment was to enable students to synthesize their thoughts after a brief study of educational philosophies and curriculum. The final products, however, ended up being more than “just any ol’ perspective papers.” They were literally works of art!
The students wrote their Christian perspectives, peer-edited each others’ writings, and then polished their own writing. Each also chose a symbol, visual or song to help them meaningfully share their perspective with others, as well as to help encapsulate it for themselves. Then they read aloud and recorded their perspective (using GarageBand), requiring them not only to write their thoughts, but also to speak the words and hear their perspective in their own voice and confront whether they actually believed what they had written.
In a computer lab, Marj started by modeling the recording and exporting processes for the students. Then, using GarageBand and external microphones from AV (and operating in “whisper mode” except for those who were recording) they recorded themselves reading their Christian perspective. They also added their visual, song, or video (some needed to use iMovie), exported it, and either emailed it to Marj or uploaded it to the class wiki on KnightVision. Amazingly, the majority of the class completed the project during the 50-minute lab time.
GarageBand not only allowed the students to pull together their symbols and voices into one medium, but it also helped them recognize how easily audio recording could be used in the classroom so they could begin to think about using it with their future students.
When assessing the activity, Marj focused on the content and text of her students’ perspectives and not the technical recording aspects because she felt the technology was too new for most of the students. However, listening to their voices as she read their papers aided in her understanding as she evaluated them. She also used a rubric developed with other Education department colleagues.
Because this assignment was such a success, they also recorded their final assignment titled A Rationale for Leading and Managing a Learning Community. Because many of their rationales contained some of the same themes as the Christian perspective assignment, many of the students used their same symbol, but interestingly, some selected a new symbol. This second recording enabled the students to reflect on how their views might have changed and deepened over the semester, as well as demonstrated how Christian perspectives are always developing. It also gave her students an opportunity to become more comfortable with the processes of recording and exporting of audio.
Posted in: Academic Software: Faculty Highlights
Brian Fuller: Wikis in Audio Production
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
CAS Professor Brian Fuller shared with us the following thoughts about using wikis in his film classes.
“Making films and television programs is an inherently collaborative enterprise. And—as in the sciences—discoveries in the discipline are often the product of trial and error. I wanted a means for students in my Multi-Camera Production class to store and edit their discoveries over the life of a 14-episode variety show as they rotated through various positions of responsibility. A camera operator might gain an insight during the Wednesday show that would benefit her successor on Friday—but where could her musings be posted, accessed, added to, corrected, and improved over time? The Wiki tool seemed a naturally cybernetic clearinghouse of experimental knowledge. Its value as a proving ground for ideas is multiplied by restricting the Wiki’s audience with KnightVision enrollment.
Because panicked activity often characterizes the days we record shows—and because some students are just quiet wallflowers when it comes to class discussion—Wiki entries revealed reflective engagement with the production process that might not otherwise have come to my attention. I began to use the Wiki as one factor in a class participation grade (since the tool does me the favor of identifying contributors by name).
Borrowing some pedagogy from my colleague Daniel Garcia, my use of the Wiki migrated to an Audio Production course. The class often requires that I lecture hunched over a studio mixer or with a boom microphone in my hand. Thus, a concurrent outline of my notes on PowerPoint or whiteboard is frequently impractical. At the end of such classes, I’ll ask a student to post notes for the day to the Wiki. Because students don’t know in advance which of them will be chosen “class scribe,” I find they all take more thorough notes. It’s like a pop quiz, a class participation grade, and a service project all in one. And using Wiki means the scribe can later be edited by peers and prof.”
Interested in learning more about wikis and how to use them in your course? Contact one of our team members for a personal consultation.
Posted in: Faculty Highlights
Doug Blomberg: On curriculum and technology
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
In his book, Wisdom and Curriculum: Christian Schooling After Postmodernity, Doug Blomberg talks about the integral role of “play” during the formation of knowledge and wisdom. He uses the World Wide Web as a metaphor for learning, stating that learning, like the internet, offers “connections [that] are not prescribed, there is no one sequence set..it puts control into the hands of learners themselves, to determine their own running—currere (learning process).”(p. 190)
He goes on to describe how “play” is important when learning new software.
“Similarly, the best way to learn to use new software is to play around, to experiment with it in a disciplined context. Complete a few of the tutorial sessions, certainly, and then get on with the work one would normally be doing—a meaningful task, not a rote activity—and refer to the online help facility or the manual when problems arise. Learning as play is situated and shared with the tools one is using; understanding is in the hands as well as in the head…Even as I write, the words speak back to me and ask me questions, and the words I ponder pull me in different directions—which one will I follow?” (p. 190)
So when it comes to learning and/or implementing new software or technology, take Blomberg’s advice. Don’t wait until you have mastered it before you use it…Mastery comes with play!
Five strategies for learning new technology
(adapted from Doug Blomberg’s Wisdom and Curriculum, 2008)
- Play around with it.
- Experiment with it in a disciplined context rather than doing a rote activity.
- Complete a few tutorial sessions.
- Use the technology to complete a meaningful task.
- Use the online help or other available help resources when problems arise.
Posted in: Best Practices: Faculty Highlights
