Episode Transcript
Brent Warner 0:00
What tech skills does the average teacher need in order to survive in the modern classroom? This is the higher ed tech podcast season six, episode three.
Tim Van Norman 0:22
Welcome to today’s higher ed tech Podcast. I’m Tim Van Norman, the Instructional Technologist at Irvine Valley College,
Brent Warner 0:28
and I’m Brent Warner, Professor of ESL here at IVC. We both enjoy integrating technology into the classroom, which is what this show is all about.
Tim Van Norman 0:37
Welcome. We’re glad you’re here with us. So the semester has started for us?
Brent Warner 0:43
Yeah. Well, most people are getting on, getting on, but there’s a few people still starting here.
Tim Van Norman 0:49
And one of the things that, as instructional technologists, I get a lot of questions about is, you know, there’s people who have just been hired within the last couple of weeks of school starting what do they need to know? How do they get started, and stuff like that. And so thought it might be good to to put some context together and put a little thing together on, what do new teachers need? But what do you need to be effective? What technology skills you need to be effective in your classroom and realize everything we say there’s the opposite is also true.
Brent Warner 1:27
So, yeah, don’t listen to us at all. Well, the I think the thing here Tim, that we really want to kind of clarify is, you know, there’s a lot of a lot of teachers, we talked about some of these things throughout covid And these updates and like, what do we do with the technology, the physical technology, etc? But I think what we’re really looking at is a student shift in expectation on what the average teacher knows how to do when they’re walking into a college or university classroom right there, you know, like, kind of gone are the days of, like, the professor, you know, hauling around a binder filled with papers falling out and, like, you know, all of these things, like these kind of stereotypical images. And, you know, you can do some of that stuff, but it’s actually going to affect whether students sign up for your classes in the future, right? It’s like, Oh, do you? Are you? I mean, some people are really well organized that way, and it’s fine, but I’m just saying, like, I think that a lot of students have a certain expectation of general know how with tech, that this is kind of what we’re trying to talk about today, is like, if you’re going to try and get a job in a college, if you’re going to expect to be able to kind of keep running classes, you Know, you need to dedicate a little bit of time if you haven’t done it before, if you haven’t learned these things over there, you need to dedicate some time to figuring out how to do these things, what it means for all of these, how it affects your students, learning processes, etc. And so we’re going to try and cover some of the overviews of things that, you know, we think that most people should be generally aware of and or equipped to deal with as it comes up in the classroom.
Tim Van Norman 3:06
Absolutely. And as we do this, we’re going to talk about a face to face class versus an online class, and understand, we understand there’s overlap between them. You know, you may be using a learning management system in your face to face class. You may be doing a synchronous online class versus an asynchronous online class all of those different things. We understand the nuances. But there’s skill, certain skills that are universal. There’s also skills that are very specific to those different types of modalities. Yeah, yeah. And
Brent Warner 3:37
we’re not going to be talking about high flex today. Is this, if you’re doing a HyFlex class, we’re going to kind of make the assumption that you’re extra techie already, or you have some sort of capacity for it, and so, so you might, you might be okay to skip this or go back and listen to our HyFlex episodes that we did in the past, because some interesting conversations around ways to do that as well.
Tim Van Norman 4:01
Looking at your face to face. To face class, there’s some things that you want to be aware of. And the first thing I would say is go into the face to face class early and take a look at the teacher station that will tell you what you should and shouldn’t have.
Brent Warner 4:18
Yeah, yeah, your your teacher station. Tim, this is one that that, you know we’ve we you and I have talked about this before. You have choices. Of course, you know, if you’re depending if you’re like a Mac person, like I am, you might be thinking, Okay, I’m just going to come in and plug in my Mac into the teacher station, and everything will be fine, because I know how to work with that. I do know some teachers that do that. I don’t do that myself. To me, I want to work on, in general, whatever is available to me and and things that like I can maybe have my students come up and work on at the same time. And I don’t really want my students tapping in on my laptop. Personally, I. Yeah, but also, you know, it’s going to be what everybody else is using. So if you’re having tech problems, it’s easy for someone to come and, you know, easier for someone to come and help out. You know all these different little details. So if you’re working with the tech that’s provided to you, you’re going to, in general, have a better time, although, if you really know what you’re doing and you’re saying, hey, I need to have this one because this particular software that I’m using is only available on this computer whatever, then that makes sense too, absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 5:30
And that said, so one of the things I actually, as a Windows person, and we typically have windows on our teacher stations, I actually go the opposite way. I bring my laptop and I use Zoom to connect to the teacher station. So if I want a student to do something, I’ll have them do it on the teacher station. I absolutely agree with you. I don’t want them messing with my laptop, but I also don’t want to be stuck at the teacher station when I’m presenting and stuff like that. So I will actually take a laptop with me, and I will walk around the classroom and use Zoom because I can share my screen from my laptop. I can do everything on my laptop. I can see the chat even on my laptop, and yet I can have projected whatever it is I’m trying to do as I walk around the room. Yeah. So different, different philosophies, different ideas on how to present that material. And by the way, I’ve also used the teacher station and used a remote, a clicker, and moved between, if I’m doing just a straight PowerPoint. That’s a really easy way PowerPoint, Google slides just to go next, next, next, all the way through. That’s a great way to do it, too, and that’s even easier than on the teacher station.
Brent Warner 6:45
Yeah, well, and do check your teacher stations, because a lot of schools now have clickers. You know, the remote controls built in. They’re just kind of tucked under the shelf or behind the keyboard or something like that. And so, you know, in the same thing, though, if you’re bringing your own special things, do you need any dongles or attachments, all, you know, like, we talk about that physical hardware stuff, you know, fairly regularly, and it’s continues to be a thing. So I have, I have my little go kit in my backpack all the time, and it’s like, oh, in the case that I’m going to be doing something different, right, or in the case that a student needs to, you know, they they can only get it on their computer, but they can’t get their thing online, and I need to connect their computer suddenly. Then having a little, a little go kit of dongles and cables and those kinds of things is fairly useful,
Tim Van Norman 7:33
Absolutely, and that that really is, I think, key to being successful in face to face classes, having that flexibility, but also understanding the environment that you’re in and working within that understand that there’s sometimes there’s one classroom may be set up the same as another classroom, but things might work differently. So anytime you’re going to be switching classrooms, anything like that, whatever you can do to get in early and make sure that it’s going to work the way you expect it to is probably the biggest key to success.
Brent Warner 8:03
Yeah, yep, totally agree. So let’s switch over to him. Now we’re now we’ll talk mostly about online classes, but remember that any of the digital stuff we talk about you might be bringing into your physical face to face class as well. So, but let’s just kind of assume maybe you’re teaching either from your office or from home. So what are the some of the things that we need to think about here,
Tim Van Norman 8:27
Absolutely, especially if you’re looking at home. What type of personal equipment do you need? Yeah, so one of the nice things is you can have a computer, a laptop, an iPad. You can teach with all three. There’s a lot of different things that you can do, and that’s synchronous or asynchronous. So asynchronous, you’re probably going to be recording, well, you want to have a comfortable environment to record in. If you’re teaching, you want to have a comfortable environment to teach in. You don’t want to be, you know, sitting in your bedroom, on your bed, trying to teach a class or trying to record either way. You know, be comfortable, because you’re going to be there for a little while.
Brent Warner 9:08
I’ll just throw this one in. Tim, we didn’t, we didn’t prepare for it. But that privacy factor too is like, do you have, you know, are you going to have your husband, wife, dog, whatever, running around in the background? Like, are you gonna have, you know, all sorts of things. There’s still weird issues, right? Like, you would think these things would have cleared themselves up over the years, but then – and I’m not saying it’s at fault, but it’s like we, when we teach from home, many of us live in little places, right? And it’s like, you don’t have a lot of options for people to move around. And are you going to tell your children, oh, if you’re going to come in the room, you need to belly crawl across the way so that you don’t get you know, I mean, whatever it is, right? And so, so you just have to kind of say, like, hey, is there a way that I can make this setup work in a way that doesn’t distract with the background? Do I need to put on a virtual, virtual background, like I’ve got on right now? Do I need. To tilt the angles a little different so that it only points at the wall. Some of those things are don’t necessarily come up for us right away, until the problem shows up, and then you’re like, oh, shoot, I think you know, like, that’s not professional or whatever level. So worth considering, too.
Tim Van Norman 10:17
And even pay attention to what is on your wall. Yeah. Is that something that you want your students to know. See whatever. I love how some faculty have bookshelves. It’s it’s nice. There’s nothing real specific about it, but it just kind of looks like a studious thing. You used to have a little library thing, yeah, or the book that flew through. You know, there’s so so as you think about that, and when you’re recording, you have some of those same things, it’s not just on Zoom. So think about that as you’re putting it together, as you’re putting your class together and understanding it, what is your physical environment going to be like, by the way, you might want all those same things in your office, if you’re teaching from your office that could be or recording in your office that could be exactly the same. Questions, do you want your office mate walking through, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.
Brent Warner 11:15
Okay. What else we got here?
Tim Van Norman 11:19
If you are recording at home or teaching from home. I recommend multiple monitors. I know, you know, but I’ve got a laptop, it’s good enough. Well, even the biggest screen on a laptop, if I can throw a second monitor on it, it just makes my life so much easier.
Brent Warner 11:40
Yeah, yeah. I had a, I had a for a while when I was on sabbatical, until I got a second monitor. I was just working off of my laptop. And, you know, I was doing webinars and things like that. And it’s like, oh my gosh. It’s, you know, having that extra space, you know, it’s, it’s like, working, you know, imagine working on a tiny, little desk, right? And then, okay, well, when I have more desk space, I can move the papers around. I can have whatever I need access to. When it’s Tiny Desk, I’ve got a limited amount of space where I can work with. And so, you know, the more space you have, you you know, you will find that it’s, it’s a relief when you need it to be able to say, Oh, I just want to share screen on this one part of the app and do other stuff in the background while students are looking at it, or whatever else it is. So definitely multiple monitors, if possible. Or some people go for those really big, you know, like extra big one single monitors. So whatever works for you, but play with it and see what you need.
Tim Van Norman 12:39
Get that screen space is important. So when you’re teaching online, one of the keys is recording, asynchronous or synchronous, you’re going to be doing either recording or at least streaming. So what tools do you use for that? And one of the big ones that we have is zoom. Yeah, it’s one of the most popular, and teams also works for some people and stuff like that, but that’s especially when you’re when you’re teaching your class. I like zoom for for synchronous classes, but if you’re familiar with Zoom, that’s all you need. You can actually record as well. Yeah, I think a lot of just you, if you want.
Brent Warner 13:27
Yeah, I think that’s, that’s the one that’s a big tip that a lot of people just think of it only for online meetings, but you can actually record your lectures, or, you know, whatever data that you need to have for your students, you know, information, mini lectures, etc. You can just do it all and then record and have the video for you quite quickly. So it’s it’s really useful.
Tim Van Norman 13:50
Absolutely. You also could if you wanted to use your cell phone. I know it doesn’t sound great or whatever. But the reality is, a lot of cell phones right now are such a good quality that if you can set it up and you build it properly, especially if it’s going to be you, okay, if you’re going to be doing a a PowerPoint or Google slide, don’t do a cell phone. But if it’s just going to be you talking, and that’s the whole thing, the whole video, your cell phone can actually do a good job, and you can get that environment that you’re looking for. Now, I don’t recommend a very long one then, but it is possible.
Brent Warner 14:36
Yeah, well, I mean, your camera on your cell phone is probably better than your webcam on your laptop, or whatever else it is, right? It’s pretty high quality. I mean, it’s quite high quality camera. And I do see people doing this, and I see people, you know, kind of getting creative, and they go out to the park and they record themselves, you know, out in the park or out in nature somewhere to talk about some of the things. And so you can really, you know, you have. A studio in your pocket. And you know, as Tim said, it takes some time, or if you’re recording a longer video, you don’t want to probably carry that on your phone for a long time, like, Oh, I’ve made an hour long recording, and it’s just on my phone. But then you could export it to your computer and then upload it to whatever else you need to do. And so it is a good app option that maybe people don’t think about for full on recording content. Absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 15:24
Another one that’s very popular is screen pal.
Brent Warner 15:32
Mm hmm, yeah, screen pal’s good. Camtasia is good. A couple of these screen recording software options. Yeah, I’m, you know, play around, see what works for you. I like screen pal because it’s kind of simple, right? Screencast O, Matic is also another one that’s similar to that. Camtasia is…
Tim Van Norman 15:52
Screencast O, Matic renamed themselves to be screenpal.
Brent Warner 15:56
Right – sorry there’s another one. Sorry, I always get messed up. It’s not Screencast O Matic and screenpal are the same one. There was one other one that was Screencastify. Sorry, that was exactly. And that one’s cool too. So anyways, just play around with what it works for you. Because some of these are like, kind of single click and just get it done. And other ones, like Camtasia are like, Oh, you’re going to make a whole production, you know? And so you just want to see what you’re looking for quality wise, and what you have the capacity for as well.
Tim Van Norman 16:22
And remember, in at least, if you’re using Canvas, there’s also things that might be built into Canvas, such as Canvas studio, so if you’ve got that, that would also allow you to do some recording. So think about those options, and again, that you’re probably using a desktop or a laptop to do that. You can do it on an iPad or a mobile device, but it just does for recording something like that, they do a better job on an actual computer.
Brent Warner 16:56
Yeah. And speaking of Canvas, Tim, we should talk a little bit about LMS systems when you’re going, especially if you’re going to a new school or you haven’t, you know, you’re trying to figure out how your colleagues do things. You know, you want to make sure that you learn some of these your LMS. So if it’s Canvas or Blackboard or whatever it is, doesn’t really matter. But a few things that you might want to ask around or make sure that you know. One is, do you know how to distribute materials in the same way as your colleagues? So in our department, Tim, most of us, especially for our academic writing classes, we use Google Docs and we use Google assignments as the LTI plugin inside of Canvas. Now, that might not be for everybody, but for the majority of our department, we do use that. And then the students know when they go from one class to the next to the next, and they don’t have to get taught how to do the same thing over or, you know, like, not the same thing. They don’t have to get taught a different system every time they go into a new class, right? So they’re like, okay, as long as I’m in this program, I’m pretty much guaranteed that everybody’s doing these things. So someone has taught the students down the line, and they’re good to go, absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 18:11
It makes your life easier. Also, when you get started, as you talked about, you know, if you’re one or two classes down, they probably already have that. If you’re one of the early ones, you know that what you’re teaching them actually will be useful going forward. So absolutely, I love that figuring out what everybody else is doing in your area. The same thing with how do you create assignments, how do you create pages, versus whatever it is all of that material, that distribution of material and the assignments, that’s a great, great tip I like that pay attention to how you’re going to check student work are are you going to be You’re going to use SpeedGrader. You’re going to use Turnitin feedback studio. You’re going to use, you know, what tool are you going to be using, using to evaluate student work.
Brent Warner 19:09
And when you do that, Tim, I would also say, like, take advantage of the student view option. Or if your instructional technologist is kind like you, and say, Hey, here’s a fake account that, you know, here’s your fake student account you can jump into and see it. From the students perspective, spend time doing that right? Because you’re like, Oh, I thought it would look like this, but my students aren’t seeing it. Or, you know, if we do, if you put all your feedback into a Google assignment, and then the students go back and look at the LMS, you know the canvas assignment, and they don’t see any feedback, because it wasn’t written in the Canvas feedback. It was written inside of the document, right? So they’re just things that you want to have just play with and see both sides. So make sure that you one you know how you’re going to be doing your checking your student work. And how they’re going to be seeing it from there as well.
Tim Van Norman 20:03
And make sure you explain it to the students. Yeah, set those expectations early. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from somebody, where are my students looking for my feedback? Because they don’t seem to get it and their students are looking at one place and they’re putting it in something else.
Brent Warner 20:22
Yeah, explain the whole LMS like you want to be able to tell students how they get through things to succeed in your class. I’ve had students of mine, they at least one, well, not many, but I’ve had one student who specifically complained she didn’t like the way that I had everything organized inside of my LMS because she had learned from how a different teacher did it in a different way, right? And so she’s like, well, I can’t find anything that you’re sending to me. And I’m like, Well, okay, let’s sort that out. But the reason that she was upset was because, you know, some of these things have so many different ways to do things that it’s very easy to get into a pattern and then not recognize that your patent doesn’t match theirs, right? So, so taking that time to explain to students what is the difference, what is the element like, what is the structure that you’re using for it? And you have to know that for yourself too. I mean, sometimes it’ll take time. So tell your students, Hey, be patient with me. I’m trying to figure some of these things out. And by the way, that’s a big hint. A lot of students will be very, very patient with you if you just tell them that you’re you’re working on it right, as compared to like, trying to pretend like you’re an expert on something that you’re not really. And you know, it can be a big load off for you. If you’re not stressed that you have to be the perfect canvas, or what, or LMS person, where you’re like, I know about my topic, and I’m learning about these things together with you.
Tim Van Norman 21:50
Absolutely. That’s a great one. As you, as you work with your students, as you’re getting your class together, take a good look at your publisher, your textbook materials. Now, some people get books off the shelf, books, and they use those. Some people go OER. Some people have the students buy publisher materials. Pay attention to what those are, by the way, if the rest of your department is using Cengage, you might not want to go with McGraw Hill. And so work together with your department to see that you’ve got it put together. Well, there’s a huge push for zero textbook cost. Ztc, there’s a lot of these pushes going on that works very well. For many cases, it doesn’t work 100% and it can be a lot of work. So just understand we’re not advocating anything other than the fact that you look at what you’re doing and make sure that you are comfortable and you’ve got what you need and can work with whatever that tool is that you’re going to use.
Brent Warner 23:08
Well, and I’d also say here too, Tim is like, okay, so if everybody else is in Pearson, for example, and then you’re going, Okay, I’m going to McGraw Hill, well, you are opening up your students cost to a whole new subscription service that they might already have access to, something that they’re paying for already, right? On the other hand, possibly your department is kind of leading heavily towards the zero textbook cost or open educational resources, and then you’re the only one that’s trying to charge, you know, get your students on a subscription. Then it’s like, Well, okay, let’s, you know, I mean, again, all these decisions you need to make individually and see through these things. But are they the best choices just because they’re what you’ve learned to do in the past, or are they the best choices for your students? Now, sometimes those things take some revisiting, and, you know, sometimes a little bit of honest, honest reflection, because it is easy when we go, okay, this thing is all built for me, and I don’t have to think of anything. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the best thing for students. So just worth, worth mulling over every once in a while as you’re going through your updates on your courses.
Tim Van Norman 24:19
Absolutely, and in all of these cases, it might be good to look for people that can be your advocates and that you can ask questions of and be a resource for you. Because you know an OER librarian, they’re going to be able to help you identify things your your department chair will help you as well. So there’s a lot of people who have vested interest in helping you choose the right textbook and make sure that you’re making the decisions that are appropriate for your department that way, but also your instructional technologists, they’re there maybe not to help you with the textbook, but to help you implement. These things, and to look at your class and and help you organize it the way that other people will do it, too, and so that maybe your students can see have a consistency between semesters, yeah, and stuff like that.
Brent Warner 25:15
Okay, last little bit here, and we’ll kind of zip through this quickly, Tim, but just a few things that you want to keep aware of, like, how are you keeping track of your information? You know this, a lot of the LMS is try to build in good systems for doing this. But, you know, for years, for example, Tim, I have always wanted Canvas to have a back end notes for the teachers on every assignment that like when I when I copy it to my new semester, it would still give me my old notes that are only for me on the back. But I could say like, oh yeah, I forgot this, but this assignment needs to be updated to do this because my students, you know, didn’t like it, or whatever else happened, right? And so, so, but there is no notes inside of there. So do are you? Do you have a way to track your notes on assignments you’ve done, or whatever else it is, and grades and attendance, right? These things as well. You know, Tim, I know you have strategies for doing these for yourself. Like other people, have their own things. What are you going to do here? Right? Do you have, do you have an idea in place absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 26:21
And just because it works for somebody else doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you, right? I’ve seen very successful people for attendance. They literally have a grid all their students on one side, all the dates on the top, and they just mark it there on a piece of paper. And that works, and it never breaks down, and they don’t have to worry about it, you know, later they can just look in one glance and have their questions answered. Other people like the attendance tool in Canvas. Other people like various different things. So you’ve got to figure out what’s right for you in that um, not necessarily, what’s what everybody else is doing,
Brent Warner 27:02
Yeah, play with it. You know, that’s the other thing too. Is like, you might try something it doesn’t work. Try a different time, the next time around, right? And so until you build a system that really works, it’s not usually it’s not something that you just go, this is what I’m going to do, and it’s always going to work. You need to make, you know, tweaks and adjustments on the on the way to finding what is a good fit for your style.
Tim Van Norman 27:23
And we also remember that when you’re teaching online, attendance may be defined differently for different classes. You know, attendance may be, they’ve submitted a particular homework assignment every week. Attendance may be, you know, something else, something different than what we might look at and say, Oh, that’s attendance in a face to face class. So, yeah. So just you’ll have to figure that out. What that is. There’s lots of reasons for for why you still need to keep track of attendance, but that’s something that you as the teacher get to figure that one out.
Brent Warner 28:01
Yeah. So there’s a lot of these little tech tips that you might think about or make sure that you’re ready for whatever else it is, right? It’s not to say, Hey, this is 100% going to cover everything that you need to do and no. But the idea is that as you’re stepping maybe onto a new campus, or maybe you’re you’ve been away for a while, like I was, and you’re coming back in, you want to think about these things. Think about these things. It’s, it’s really valuable to have some sort of plan on all the things, instead of just waiting, because we do get these emails when you’re a new hire. For example, here’s all the things you need to do. It’s like it becomes, you know, you really need to set aside that time and go, Okay, today, I’m going to figure out this. Tomorrow, I’m going to figure out that this weekend, I’m going to work on, you know, XYZ, and really plan each of those things out carefully so that you know what you’re doing when you’re actually in the classroom.
Tim Van Norman 28:51
Absolutely. Thank you for listening today. For more information about this show, please visit our website, at the higher edtech podcast.com
Brent Warner 29:02
As always, we do want your feedback, so please go to thehigheredtechpodcast.com and let us know your thoughts.
Tim Van Norman 29:09
For everyone at IVC that’s listening. If you need help with technology questions, please contact IVC tech support. And if you have questions about technology in your classroom, please stop by a 322 or contact me. Tim Van Norman AT T van norman@ivc.edu
Brent Warner 29:23
and if you want to reach out to me about the show, you can find me on LinkedIn at @BrentGWarner.
Tim Van Norman 29:29
I’m Tim Van Norman
Brent Warner 29:32
and I’m Brent Warner, and we hope this episode has helped you on the road from possibility to actuality. Take care everybody.
What tech skills does the average teacher need in order to survive in the modern classroom? This is the higher ed tech podcast season six, episode three.
Tim Van Norman 0:22
Welcome to today’s higher ed tech Podcast. I’m Tim Van Norman, the Instructional Technologist at Irvine Valley College,
Brent Warner 0:28
and I’m Brent Warner, Professor of ESL here at IVC. We both enjoy integrating technology into the classroom, which is what this show is all about.
Tim Van Norman 0:37
Welcome. We’re glad you’re here with us. So the semester has started for us?
Brent Warner 0:43
Yeah. Well, most people are getting on, getting on, but there’s a few people still starting here.
Tim Van Norman 0:49
And one of the things that, as instructional technologists, I get a lot of questions about is, you know, there’s people who have just been hired within the last couple of weeks of school starting what do they need to know? How do they get started, and stuff like that. And so thought it might be good to to put some context together and put a little thing together on, what do new teachers need? But what do you need to be effective? What technology skills you need to be effective in your classroom and realize everything we say there’s the opposite is also true.
Brent Warner 1:27
So, yeah, don’t listen to us at all. Well, the I think the thing here Tim, that we really want to kind of clarify is, you know, there’s a lot of a lot of teachers, we talked about some of these things throughout covid And these updates and like, what do we do with the technology, the physical technology, etc? But I think what we’re really looking at is a student shift in expectation on what the average teacher knows how to do when they’re walking into a college or university classroom right there, you know, like, kind of gone are the days of, like, the professor, you know, hauling around a binder filled with papers falling out and, like, you know, all of these things, like these kind of stereotypical images. And, you know, you can do some of that stuff, but it’s actually going to affect whether students sign up for your classes in the future, right? It’s like, Oh, do you? Are you? I mean, some people are really well organized that way, and it’s fine, but I’m just saying, like, I think that a lot of students have a certain expectation of general know how with tech, that this is kind of what we’re trying to talk about today, is like, if you’re going to try and get a job in a college, if you’re going to expect to be able to kind of keep running classes, you Know, you need to dedicate a little bit of time if you haven’t done it before, if you haven’t learned these things over there, you need to dedicate some time to figuring out how to do these things, what it means for all of these, how it affects your students, learning processes, etc. And so we’re going to try and cover some of the overviews of things that, you know, we think that most people should be generally aware of and or equipped to deal with as it comes up in the classroom.
Tim Van Norman 3:06
Absolutely. And as we do this, we’re going to talk about a face to face class versus an online class, and understand, we understand there’s overlap between them. You know, you may be using a learning management system in your face to face class. You may be doing a synchronous online class versus an asynchronous online class all of those different things. We understand the nuances. But there’s skill, certain skills that are universal. There’s also skills that are very specific to those different types of modalities. Yeah, yeah. And
Brent Warner 3:37
we’re not going to be talking about high flex today. Is this, if you’re doing a HyFlex class, we’re going to kind of make the assumption that you’re extra techie already, or you have some sort of capacity for it, and so, so you might, you might be okay to skip this or go back and listen to our HyFlex episodes that we did in the past, because some interesting conversations around ways to do that as well.
Tim Van Norman 4:01
Looking at your face to face. To face class, there’s some things that you want to be aware of. And the first thing I would say is go into the face to face class early and take a look at the teacher station that will tell you what you should and shouldn’t have.
Brent Warner 4:18
Yeah, yeah, your your teacher station. Tim, this is one that that, you know we’ve we you and I have talked about this before. You have choices. Of course, you know, if you’re depending if you’re like a Mac person, like I am, you might be thinking, Okay, I’m just going to come in and plug in my Mac into the teacher station, and everything will be fine, because I know how to work with that. I do know some teachers that do that. I don’t do that myself. To me, I want to work on, in general, whatever is available to me and and things that like I can maybe have my students come up and work on at the same time. And I don’t really want my students tapping in on my laptop. Personally, I. Yeah, but also, you know, it’s going to be what everybody else is using. So if you’re having tech problems, it’s easy for someone to come and, you know, easier for someone to come and help out. You know all these different little details. So if you’re working with the tech that’s provided to you, you’re going to, in general, have a better time, although, if you really know what you’re doing and you’re saying, hey, I need to have this one because this particular software that I’m using is only available on this computer whatever, then that makes sense too, absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 5:30
And that said, so one of the things I actually, as a Windows person, and we typically have windows on our teacher stations, I actually go the opposite way. I bring my laptop and I use Zoom to connect to the teacher station. So if I want a student to do something, I’ll have them do it on the teacher station. I absolutely agree with you. I don’t want them messing with my laptop, but I also don’t want to be stuck at the teacher station when I’m presenting and stuff like that. So I will actually take a laptop with me, and I will walk around the classroom and use Zoom because I can share my screen from my laptop. I can do everything on my laptop. I can see the chat even on my laptop, and yet I can have projected whatever it is I’m trying to do as I walk around the room. Yeah. So different, different philosophies, different ideas on how to present that material. And by the way, I’ve also used the teacher station and used a remote, a clicker, and moved between, if I’m doing just a straight PowerPoint. That’s a really easy way PowerPoint, Google slides just to go next, next, next, all the way through. That’s a great way to do it, too, and that’s even easier than on the teacher station.
Brent Warner 6:45
Yeah, well, and do check your teacher stations, because a lot of schools now have clickers. You know, the remote controls built in. They’re just kind of tucked under the shelf or behind the keyboard or something like that. And so, you know, in the same thing, though, if you’re bringing your own special things, do you need any dongles or attachments, all, you know, like, we talk about that physical hardware stuff, you know, fairly regularly, and it’s continues to be a thing. So I have, I have my little go kit in my backpack all the time, and it’s like, oh, in the case that I’m going to be doing something different, right, or in the case that a student needs to, you know, they they can only get it on their computer, but they can’t get their thing online, and I need to connect their computer suddenly. Then having a little, a little go kit of dongles and cables and those kinds of things is fairly useful,
Tim Van Norman 7:33
Absolutely, and that that really is, I think, key to being successful in face to face classes, having that flexibility, but also understanding the environment that you’re in and working within that understand that there’s sometimes there’s one classroom may be set up the same as another classroom, but things might work differently. So anytime you’re going to be switching classrooms, anything like that, whatever you can do to get in early and make sure that it’s going to work the way you expect it to is probably the biggest key to success.
Brent Warner 8:03
Yeah, yep, totally agree. So let’s switch over to him. Now we’re now we’ll talk mostly about online classes, but remember that any of the digital stuff we talk about you might be bringing into your physical face to face class as well. So, but let’s just kind of assume maybe you’re teaching either from your office or from home. So what are the some of the things that we need to think about here,
Tim Van Norman 8:27
Absolutely, especially if you’re looking at home. What type of personal equipment do you need? Yeah, so one of the nice things is you can have a computer, a laptop, an iPad. You can teach with all three. There’s a lot of different things that you can do, and that’s synchronous or asynchronous. So asynchronous, you’re probably going to be recording, well, you want to have a comfortable environment to record in. If you’re teaching, you want to have a comfortable environment to teach in. You don’t want to be, you know, sitting in your bedroom, on your bed, trying to teach a class or trying to record either way. You know, be comfortable, because you’re going to be there for a little while.
Brent Warner 9:08
I’ll just throw this one in. Tim, we didn’t, we didn’t prepare for it. But that privacy factor too is like, do you have, you know, are you going to have your husband, wife, dog, whatever, running around in the background? Like, are you gonna have, you know, all sorts of things. There’s still weird issues, right? Like, you would think these things would have cleared themselves up over the years, but then – and I’m not saying it’s at fault, but it’s like we, when we teach from home, many of us live in little places, right? And it’s like, you don’t have a lot of options for people to move around. And are you going to tell your children, oh, if you’re going to come in the room, you need to belly crawl across the way so that you don’t get you know, I mean, whatever it is, right? And so, so you just have to kind of say, like, hey, is there a way that I can make this setup work in a way that doesn’t distract with the background? Do I need to put on a virtual, virtual background, like I’ve got on right now? Do I need. To tilt the angles a little different so that it only points at the wall. Some of those things are don’t necessarily come up for us right away, until the problem shows up, and then you’re like, oh, shoot, I think you know, like, that’s not professional or whatever level. So worth considering, too.
Tim Van Norman 10:17
And even pay attention to what is on your wall. Yeah. Is that something that you want your students to know. See whatever. I love how some faculty have bookshelves. It’s it’s nice. There’s nothing real specific about it, but it just kind of looks like a studious thing. You used to have a little library thing, yeah, or the book that flew through. You know, there’s so so as you think about that, and when you’re recording, you have some of those same things, it’s not just on Zoom. So think about that as you’re putting it together, as you’re putting your class together and understanding it, what is your physical environment going to be like, by the way, you might want all those same things in your office, if you’re teaching from your office that could be or recording in your office that could be exactly the same. Questions, do you want your office mate walking through, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.
Brent Warner 11:15
Okay. What else we got here?
Tim Van Norman 11:19
If you are recording at home or teaching from home. I recommend multiple monitors. I know, you know, but I’ve got a laptop, it’s good enough. Well, even the biggest screen on a laptop, if I can throw a second monitor on it, it just makes my life so much easier.
Brent Warner 11:40
Yeah, yeah. I had a, I had a for a while when I was on sabbatical, until I got a second monitor. I was just working off of my laptop. And, you know, I was doing webinars and things like that. And it’s like, oh my gosh. It’s, you know, having that extra space, you know, it’s, it’s like, working, you know, imagine working on a tiny, little desk, right? And then, okay, well, when I have more desk space, I can move the papers around. I can have whatever I need access to. When it’s Tiny Desk, I’ve got a limited amount of space where I can work with. And so, you know, the more space you have, you you know, you will find that it’s, it’s a relief when you need it to be able to say, Oh, I just want to share screen on this one part of the app and do other stuff in the background while students are looking at it, or whatever else it is. So definitely multiple monitors, if possible. Or some people go for those really big, you know, like extra big one single monitors. So whatever works for you, but play with it and see what you need.
Tim Van Norman 12:39
Get that screen space is important. So when you’re teaching online, one of the keys is recording, asynchronous or synchronous, you’re going to be doing either recording or at least streaming. So what tools do you use for that? And one of the big ones that we have is zoom. Yeah, it’s one of the most popular, and teams also works for some people and stuff like that, but that’s especially when you’re when you’re teaching your class. I like zoom for for synchronous classes, but if you’re familiar with Zoom, that’s all you need. You can actually record as well. Yeah, I think a lot of just you, if you want.
Brent Warner 13:27
Yeah, I think that’s, that’s the one that’s a big tip that a lot of people just think of it only for online meetings, but you can actually record your lectures, or, you know, whatever data that you need to have for your students, you know, information, mini lectures, etc. You can just do it all and then record and have the video for you quite quickly. So it’s it’s really useful.
Tim Van Norman 13:50
Absolutely. You also could if you wanted to use your cell phone. I know it doesn’t sound great or whatever. But the reality is, a lot of cell phones right now are such a good quality that if you can set it up and you build it properly, especially if it’s going to be you, okay, if you’re going to be doing a a PowerPoint or Google slide, don’t do a cell phone. But if it’s just going to be you talking, and that’s the whole thing, the whole video, your cell phone can actually do a good job, and you can get that environment that you’re looking for. Now, I don’t recommend a very long one then, but it is possible.
Brent Warner 14:36
Yeah, well, I mean, your camera on your cell phone is probably better than your webcam on your laptop, or whatever else it is, right? It’s pretty high quality. I mean, it’s quite high quality camera. And I do see people doing this, and I see people, you know, kind of getting creative, and they go out to the park and they record themselves, you know, out in the park or out in nature somewhere to talk about some of the things. And so you can really, you know, you have. A studio in your pocket. And you know, as Tim said, it takes some time, or if you’re recording a longer video, you don’t want to probably carry that on your phone for a long time, like, Oh, I’ve made an hour long recording, and it’s just on my phone. But then you could export it to your computer and then upload it to whatever else you need to do. And so it is a good app option that maybe people don’t think about for full on recording content. Absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 15:24
Another one that’s very popular is screen pal.
Brent Warner 15:32
Mm hmm, yeah, screen pal’s good. Camtasia is good. A couple of these screen recording software options. Yeah, I’m, you know, play around, see what works for you. I like screen pal because it’s kind of simple, right? Screencast O, Matic is also another one that’s similar to that. Camtasia is…
Tim Van Norman 15:52
Screencast O, Matic renamed themselves to be screenpal.
Brent Warner 15:56
Right – sorry there’s another one. Sorry, I always get messed up. It’s not Screencast O Matic and screenpal are the same one. There was one other one that was Screencastify. Sorry, that was exactly. And that one’s cool too. So anyways, just play around with what it works for you. Because some of these are like, kind of single click and just get it done. And other ones, like Camtasia are like, Oh, you’re going to make a whole production, you know? And so you just want to see what you’re looking for quality wise, and what you have the capacity for as well.
Tim Van Norman 16:22
And remember, in at least, if you’re using Canvas, there’s also things that might be built into Canvas, such as Canvas studio, so if you’ve got that, that would also allow you to do some recording. So think about those options, and again, that you’re probably using a desktop or a laptop to do that. You can do it on an iPad or a mobile device, but it just does for recording something like that, they do a better job on an actual computer.
Brent Warner 16:56
Yeah. And speaking of Canvas, Tim, we should talk a little bit about LMS systems when you’re going, especially if you’re going to a new school or you haven’t, you know, you’re trying to figure out how your colleagues do things. You know, you want to make sure that you learn some of these your LMS. So if it’s Canvas or Blackboard or whatever it is, doesn’t really matter. But a few things that you might want to ask around or make sure that you know. One is, do you know how to distribute materials in the same way as your colleagues? So in our department, Tim, most of us, especially for our academic writing classes, we use Google Docs and we use Google assignments as the LTI plugin inside of Canvas. Now, that might not be for everybody, but for the majority of our department, we do use that. And then the students know when they go from one class to the next to the next, and they don’t have to get taught how to do the same thing over or, you know, like, not the same thing. They don’t have to get taught a different system every time they go into a new class, right? So they’re like, okay, as long as I’m in this program, I’m pretty much guaranteed that everybody’s doing these things. So someone has taught the students down the line, and they’re good to go, absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 18:11
It makes your life easier. Also, when you get started, as you talked about, you know, if you’re one or two classes down, they probably already have that. If you’re one of the early ones, you know that what you’re teaching them actually will be useful going forward. So absolutely, I love that figuring out what everybody else is doing in your area. The same thing with how do you create assignments, how do you create pages, versus whatever it is all of that material, that distribution of material and the assignments, that’s a great, great tip I like that pay attention to how you’re going to check student work are are you going to be You’re going to use SpeedGrader. You’re going to use Turnitin feedback studio. You’re going to use, you know, what tool are you going to be using, using to evaluate student work.
Brent Warner 19:09
And when you do that, Tim, I would also say, like, take advantage of the student view option. Or if your instructional technologist is kind like you, and say, Hey, here’s a fake account that, you know, here’s your fake student account you can jump into and see it. From the students perspective, spend time doing that right? Because you’re like, Oh, I thought it would look like this, but my students aren’t seeing it. Or, you know, if we do, if you put all your feedback into a Google assignment, and then the students go back and look at the LMS, you know the canvas assignment, and they don’t see any feedback, because it wasn’t written in the Canvas feedback. It was written inside of the document, right? So they’re just things that you want to have just play with and see both sides. So make sure that you one you know how you’re going to be doing your checking your student work. And how they’re going to be seeing it from there as well.
Tim Van Norman 20:03
And make sure you explain it to the students. Yeah, set those expectations early. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard from somebody, where are my students looking for my feedback? Because they don’t seem to get it and their students are looking at one place and they’re putting it in something else.
Brent Warner 20:22
Yeah, explain the whole LMS like you want to be able to tell students how they get through things to succeed in your class. I’ve had students of mine, they at least one, well, not many, but I’ve had one student who specifically complained she didn’t like the way that I had everything organized inside of my LMS because she had learned from how a different teacher did it in a different way, right? And so she’s like, well, I can’t find anything that you’re sending to me. And I’m like, Well, okay, let’s sort that out. But the reason that she was upset was because, you know, some of these things have so many different ways to do things that it’s very easy to get into a pattern and then not recognize that your patent doesn’t match theirs, right? So, so taking that time to explain to students what is the difference, what is the element like, what is the structure that you’re using for it? And you have to know that for yourself too. I mean, sometimes it’ll take time. So tell your students, Hey, be patient with me. I’m trying to figure some of these things out. And by the way, that’s a big hint. A lot of students will be very, very patient with you if you just tell them that you’re you’re working on it right, as compared to like, trying to pretend like you’re an expert on something that you’re not really. And you know, it can be a big load off for you. If you’re not stressed that you have to be the perfect canvas, or what, or LMS person, where you’re like, I know about my topic, and I’m learning about these things together with you.
Tim Van Norman 21:50
Absolutely. That’s a great one. As you, as you work with your students, as you’re getting your class together, take a good look at your publisher, your textbook materials. Now, some people get books off the shelf, books, and they use those. Some people go OER. Some people have the students buy publisher materials. Pay attention to what those are, by the way, if the rest of your department is using Cengage, you might not want to go with McGraw Hill. And so work together with your department to see that you’ve got it put together. Well, there’s a huge push for zero textbook cost. Ztc, there’s a lot of these pushes going on that works very well. For many cases, it doesn’t work 100% and it can be a lot of work. So just understand we’re not advocating anything other than the fact that you look at what you’re doing and make sure that you are comfortable and you’ve got what you need and can work with whatever that tool is that you’re going to use.
Brent Warner 23:08
Well, and I’d also say here too, Tim is like, okay, so if everybody else is in Pearson, for example, and then you’re going, Okay, I’m going to McGraw Hill, well, you are opening up your students cost to a whole new subscription service that they might already have access to, something that they’re paying for already, right? On the other hand, possibly your department is kind of leading heavily towards the zero textbook cost or open educational resources, and then you’re the only one that’s trying to charge, you know, get your students on a subscription. Then it’s like, Well, okay, let’s, you know, I mean, again, all these decisions you need to make individually and see through these things. But are they the best choices just because they’re what you’ve learned to do in the past, or are they the best choices for your students? Now, sometimes those things take some revisiting, and, you know, sometimes a little bit of honest, honest reflection, because it is easy when we go, okay, this thing is all built for me, and I don’t have to think of anything. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the best thing for students. So just worth, worth mulling over every once in a while as you’re going through your updates on your courses.
Tim Van Norman 24:19
Absolutely, and in all of these cases, it might be good to look for people that can be your advocates and that you can ask questions of and be a resource for you. Because you know an OER librarian, they’re going to be able to help you identify things your your department chair will help you as well. So there’s a lot of people who have vested interest in helping you choose the right textbook and make sure that you’re making the decisions that are appropriate for your department that way, but also your instructional technologists, they’re there maybe not to help you with the textbook, but to help you implement. These things, and to look at your class and and help you organize it the way that other people will do it, too, and so that maybe your students can see have a consistency between semesters, yeah, and stuff like that.
Brent Warner 25:15
Okay, last little bit here, and we’ll kind of zip through this quickly, Tim, but just a few things that you want to keep aware of, like, how are you keeping track of your information? You know this, a lot of the LMS is try to build in good systems for doing this. But, you know, for years, for example, Tim, I have always wanted Canvas to have a back end notes for the teachers on every assignment that like when I when I copy it to my new semester, it would still give me my old notes that are only for me on the back. But I could say like, oh yeah, I forgot this, but this assignment needs to be updated to do this because my students, you know, didn’t like it, or whatever else happened, right? And so, so, but there is no notes inside of there. So do are you? Do you have a way to track your notes on assignments you’ve done, or whatever else it is, and grades and attendance, right? These things as well. You know, Tim, I know you have strategies for doing these for yourself. Like other people, have their own things. What are you going to do here? Right? Do you have, do you have an idea in place absolutely.
Tim Van Norman 26:21
And just because it works for somebody else doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you, right? I’ve seen very successful people for attendance. They literally have a grid all their students on one side, all the dates on the top, and they just mark it there on a piece of paper. And that works, and it never breaks down, and they don’t have to worry about it, you know, later they can just look in one glance and have their questions answered. Other people like the attendance tool in Canvas. Other people like various different things. So you’ve got to figure out what’s right for you in that um, not necessarily, what’s what everybody else is doing,
Brent Warner 27:02
Yeah, play with it. You know, that’s the other thing too. Is like, you might try something it doesn’t work. Try a different time, the next time around, right? And so until you build a system that really works, it’s not usually it’s not something that you just go, this is what I’m going to do, and it’s always going to work. You need to make, you know, tweaks and adjustments on the on the way to finding what is a good fit for your style.
Tim Van Norman 27:23
And we also remember that when you’re teaching online, attendance may be defined differently for different classes. You know, attendance may be, they’ve submitted a particular homework assignment every week. Attendance may be, you know, something else, something different than what we might look at and say, Oh, that’s attendance in a face to face class. So, yeah. So just you’ll have to figure that out. What that is. There’s lots of reasons for for why you still need to keep track of attendance, but that’s something that you as the teacher get to figure that one out.
Brent Warner 28:01
Yeah. So there’s a lot of these little tech tips that you might think about or make sure that you’re ready for whatever else it is, right? It’s not to say, Hey, this is 100% going to cover everything that you need to do and no. But the idea is that as you’re stepping maybe onto a new campus, or maybe you’re you’ve been away for a while, like I was, and you’re coming back in, you want to think about these things. Think about these things. It’s, it’s really valuable to have some sort of plan on all the things, instead of just waiting, because we do get these emails when you’re a new hire. For example, here’s all the things you need to do. It’s like it becomes, you know, you really need to set aside that time and go, Okay, today, I’m going to figure out this. Tomorrow, I’m going to figure out that this weekend, I’m going to work on, you know, XYZ, and really plan each of those things out carefully so that you know what you’re doing when you’re actually in the classroom.
Tim Van Norman 28:51
Absolutely. Thank you for listening today. For more information about this show, please visit our website, at the higher edtech podcast.com
Brent Warner 29:02
As always, we do want your feedback, so please go to thehigheredtechpodcast.com and let us know your thoughts.
Tim Van Norman 29:09
For everyone at IVC that’s listening. If you need help with technology questions, please contact IVC tech support. And if you have questions about technology in your classroom, please stop by a 322 or contact me. Tim Van Norman AT T van norman@ivc.edu
Brent Warner 29:23
and if you want to reach out to me about the show, you can find me on LinkedIn at @BrentGWarner.
Tim Van Norman 29:29
I’m Tim Van Norman
Brent Warner 29:32
and I’m Brent Warner, and we hope this episode has helped you on the road from possibility to actuality. Take care everybody.
The modern classroom requires teachers to have a diverse set of tech skills to engage students and stay relevant. In this episode, Brent Warner and Tim Van Norman dive into the essential tech competencies both new and experienced educators should possess for face-to-face and online teaching. From setting up your classroom tech to leveraging learning management systems, this discussion offers practical tips to help teachers thrive in the digital age. Whether you’re a tech-savvy veteran or just starting out, this episode is a must-listen for any educator looking to future-proof their teaching toolkit.