Open letter to participants:
Can I address this letter to both participants and organizers of this seminar? Allow me to start by saying that I feel I have learned a lot– though I am sorry I was not able to take full advantage of the seminar since this was a very busy time for me. I want to give a special thanks to my fellow group members (Yeah! Go group 1!) and especially to Molly and Tamara for their excellent suggestions, their positivity and kindnes!!!
(I hope this does not count in the 150 word limit for this exercise!!)
- My artifact was a live oral presentation by students of their research project. Now it will likely be a 2 step project with step 1: students recording their “draft presentation” with VOCAT (so asynchronously) and step 2 students presenting their final work “live”. [thanks for Molly and Tamara for this great idea]
- For step 1: students will get feedback from others — I am thinking about having students work with their small group for step 1 (I divide up my classes in pre-set work groups of 4-5 students). Also step 1 might be a slightly different presentation than step 2; it could be a summary/discussion of a specific key readings (key for their project)… Still thinking about that idea though.
Lingering questions: will the students be ok using Vocat? Am I competent enough to assist them with it?
Draft of the Revised Artifact:
For this class, students are expected to carry out a research project on a topic of their choice. The project can be done individually or as a group. The project will be presented orally in class both asynchronously (using VOCAT) and synchronously.
Key Deliverables:
- Oral presentations using VOCAT. (practice presentation OR presentation of key materials for your project (week 4-5) 3-5 minute long.) Presentations will be peer reviewed.
- Draft of PowerPoint presentation or written summary of your presentation. 7 days before your presentation.
- In class presentation of your project 8-10 mn with Q and A. Presentation must include at least 1 question to ask the class for discussion
- Final PowerPoint presentation.
Key steps for this project.
- Choose research topic (list of possible topics to be posted on BB; other topics allowed with permission from me). Date: by week 3.
- Decide whether you will work individually or in group. by week 3
- Oral presentation vocat
- Give feedback to students in your group
- send me resource list (between 4 and 6) + your intro/conclusion if ready
- send me draft
- oral presentation
- send me your PowerPoint
2 replies on “Our last blog! Feeling sad but grateful!”
Stephanie, you are so kind! I have really enjoyed collaborating with you as well!
I appreciate how your artifact has developed & I think that adding in Vocat will be such a great addition to this project. From what I’ve found, it’s a pretty intuitive platform and there are folks out there who can also help in troubleshooting, so YES! I think you have all of the tools at your disposal to help the students succeed in using this platform. Also, this is a bit ageist, but I think that growing up with technology has helped this generation of students be nimble / fluent in technological platforms. So, it should be a breeze for them!
One thing I really like about your artifact is having the students write a question that the class will respond to. This is great and puts them in the shoes of the audience while also developing their communication skills by, hopefully, formulating questions that are open-ended.
My only question is the order of deliverables. Maybe it doesn’t matter that I understand as long as your students do, but are the PowerPoint presentations due to you before they present or after? It’s noted as #8, but you also mention that it should be sent to you 7 days ahead of time.
Woohoo Group 1! It has been a pleasure working with you, Molly, and Chandrika.
I’m particularly interested in your deliverable where you request a draft of the Powerpoint slides. In the past, I have provided similar checkpoints for our presentation (a proposal and a memo submitted via email) but I’m considering holding a more engaging “workshop/demo day” close to the presentation date where students have an opportunity to do a quick runthrough on what they have completed so far. This way I can counsel them directly on what they can build on or what their presentation is missing. They can also ask any questions and we can discuss solutions on the spot. Furthermore, they will have a rehearsal under their belt and there’s no surprises the day of presentations.
Good luck with completing your teaching artifact and hope you have a great end of the semester.