The Social Media To-Do List for Fall 2014

Here's what's on the desk: Twitter, Voicethread, Wikis, Forums as workspaces
Here's what's in the circular bin this time around: Blogs

After four short weeks of trying a few things out, I've got one month to get my online class in gear for Fall. I'll be teaching ninety (90) students of various levels in a GE course that just about everyone at MPC takes before they move on: History 17, U.S. History to 1877. It's a class I love, and my face-to-face version of the course is often the most lively and interesting in my schedule. Students face content they think they know and get introduced to a discipline they have no idea about. It's great. The online class has always been disappointing to me, however. Students often take it because they hate history and think online will be less of an annoyance. They are all about points and grades and getting everything done rather than learning. It is far more difficult to get online students to discover that they know little history and nothing about the discipline. It takes them a long time, if it happens at all, to give up their preconceived notions of the subject and try something new. In other words, I've found it next to impossible to create any kind of online community. I'm hopeful that with a few new social media tools I can inspire students to leave their comfort zone and think more analytically about what they are reading and learning. I'm hoping that these tools might also offer my face-to-face class more opportunities to learn for more shy students who are not about to talk in small or large group discussions (the basic organization of my courses). So here's what I plan to do:  

1. Twitter: rather than relying on group emails only to communicate with students I'll use Twitter for class announcements and direct them to new posts in a workspace forum on MPC Online. I'll keep the group emails, of course, but use Twitter as a tickertape of reminders and announcements to keep in touch. Each of my online courses has a Twitterfeed section embedded at the top of the course site. Twitter can also be a way to introduce students to the larger world of the history discipline. I'll tweet announcements about blogs, conferences and articles on subjects related to our course and loosely history-related to keep students expanding their idea of history as a discipline. 
2.  Voicethread: I think I've said enough about this before trying it. My last blog post went into detail about my plans for how to teach analysis of primary sources in an online format. I'm hopeful to say the least.  
3. Wikis: The COTL5 course taught me by example that wikis can serve as community builders. When students build knowledge together(something I associate with good discussions) then learning takes off. I'm thinking that there should be a few wikis in my course that students add to during the course of the semester on key questions that then become related to essay assignments or other evaluated activities. What if we had a wiki with key terms that students defined and analyzed for each unit of the course (there are four)? Or a wiki on a key question like What caused the Civil War? Is it enough to ask for extra credit or could I make this their writing assignment for each week?  
4. Forums as Workspaces: EconSteve brought up the possibility of making a blog a workspace for students to puzzle together to understand an assignment. I think the forum tool in MPC Online might work well for this. I want to call it the Work Table or 24/7 Study Group or something physical about all gathering in one place to work. With each new assignment I could post a new forum and invite students to start figuring out their assignments together. These would be ungraded, but a resource. Would students use them? I could also post answers to questions I get via email there to allow all students the benefit of the answer (but keep student confidentiality). 

 I think I can set that all up in a month. I think I can....

For the circular bin...blogs. I love the idea of students writing weekly and sharing ideas with one another. But here's the practical reality: Ninety students. And that's just my online students. I teach 220 students each semester who all deserve proper attention! There is no way I can sleep, eat and read everything without becoming a very unhappy person who only works (won't do that again, thanks). For a lower enrollment course it would be perfect-20-25 students maximum. And I'll keep it in mind when I start teaching some newer, non-GE courses in Mexican History and Latin American history, but for now I need to put it aside and leave it for others to enjoy. Thanks Jon and MPC colleagues for making this course meaningful. My to-do list is set!